Amazon to invest $35bn in India to boost AI innovation

Amazon plans to invest over $35 billion across its Indian operations over the next four years to boost AI transformation in the country.

The investment will also focus on logistics infrastructure, SME innovation, and supporting job creation across the country.

On Wednesday, at the sixth Amazon Smbhav Summit held in New Delhi, the company announced that the investment aims to create 3.8 million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal jobs by 2030.

According to the American conglomerate, these jobs will stem from Amazon’s commercial expansion and its growing order fulfilment and delivery network, which simultaneously supports parallel sectors such as packaging, manufacturing and transport services.

By 2030, Amazon plans to bring the benefits of AI to 15 million small businesses including with AI tools such as Seller Assistant, Next Gen Selling and others.

It also plans to improve the shopping experience for consumers in the country through innovations such as Lens AI for visual discovery, conversational shopping with Rufus, and multilingual experiences that aim to overcome literacy barriers.

Federal agencies will also gain access to Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Nova among other AI services from AWS, it said.

At the event, the e-commerce giant announced that the initiative builds on the $40 billion it has already invested in the country.

Citing a report by Keystone Strategy, Amazon said that its current investments have already enabled the digitisation of 12 million small businesses and generated £14 billion in exports, sustaining and supporting approximately 2.8 million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal jobs across India in 2024.

Investments made so far have focused on creating physical and digital infrastructure, including logistics centres, transport networks, data centres, digital payment infrastructure and technology development.

Amit Agarwal, Senior vice president emerging markets at Amazon said: “We have invested at scale in growing the physical and digital infrastructure for small businesses in India, creating millions of jobs, and taking Made-in-India global.”

He added: “Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue being a catalyst for India’s growth, as we democratise access to AI for millions of Indians and quadruple cumulative ecommerce exports enabled $80 billion by 2030.”