Amazon Web Services Targets Chile’s Growing Market with $4 Billion Cloud Push

Amazon Web Services plans to invest $4 billion to build its first cloud region in Chile by late 2026. AWS will establish three availability zones, marking its third Latin American region after Brazil and Mexico and its 37th worldwide.

All required permits for construction and operation have already secured approval, Amazon’s South Latin America leader confirmed. AWS forecasts this region will supply “significant” compute power for generative AI, data analytics and enterprise applications.

IDC projects Chile’s cloud market will grow more than 30 percent in 2024, reaching $1.9 billion by 2025 and expanding at about 20 percent annually through 2028. Rising demand for low-latency services drives AWS’s decision to localize infrastructure.

Local organizations already rely on AWS for critical workloads. LATAM Airlines, AgroSuper and Andrés Bello University run services on AWS today. Partners such as Deloitte, Accenture and NTT will support customer onboarding and systems management.

Amazon first entered Chile in 2019 with a content delivery edge location and added Outposts in 2021, Direct Connect and a Local Zone in 2023. Chile’s 15-year drought has heightened scrutiny of data-center water use.

AWS Expands in Chile with Sustainable Data Center

AWS will employ water cooling only 4 percent of the year-the equivalent to two average Chilean households’ annual water consumption-and use air and evaporative cooling methods the rest of the time.

In addition, AWS reached 100 percent renewable-energy usage in 2023 and aims for net-zero carbon by 2040 under its Climate Pledge. Competitors also expand in Chile. Microsoft Azure plans to open its local region this year.

Meanwhile, Google modified a $200 million data-center project after a court partially revoked its permit due to environmental concerns. AWS expects its early investment to capture a growing share of Latin America’s cloud services market.

Globally, AWS operates 36 regions with 114 availability zones and has announced plans for five more regions and 16 additional zones. The new Chile region will strengthen AWS’s regional footprint, offering Chilean and multinational firms secure infrastructure and faster access to advanced cloud technologies.