Cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services plans to invest an additional $5 billion in South Korea over the next six years to build new AI data centers in the country.
Announced on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit 2025, the investment is earmarked for building a new generation of high-powered AI data centers primarily in the Incheon and Gyeonggi regions near Seoul. These facilities will support high-performance AI workloads and cloud computing needs for enterprises across the region.
The investment reinforces South Korea’s fast-growing status as one of Asia’s most ambitious AI hubs.
Key Highlights
- AWS to invest $5 billion (7 trillion won) in South Korea by 2031 to build new AI data centers near Seoul.
- The investment is the largest foreign direct investment in South Korea to date.
- The announcement follows $4 billion partnership of AWS with SK Group to develop an AI data center in Ulsan earlier this year.
- Amazon’s broader APEC strategy involves $40 billion in AI and cloud investments across 14 economies, projected to generate $45 billion for U.S. GDP.
Doubling Down on a Chip Powerhouse
The plan was revealed during a meeting between AWS Chief Executive Officer Matt Garman and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the sidelines of the APEC CEO summit in Gyeongju this week. The presidential office described the deal as the country’s largest-ever foreign investment, outpacing Amazon’s previous $4 billion pledge in June for an AI data center in Ulsan.
For tech giants, South Korea’s appeal is twofold: it’s a rapidly digitizing market and, crucially, home to global memory chip leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, whose high-performance chips are foundational to large-scale AI operations.
“Our government has set a target of becoming one of the world’s top three AI powerhouses,” President Lee said during the meeting. “Amazon’s additional large-scale investment in AI data centres will further accelerate the development of Korea’s AI ecosystem.”
The investment comes amid a wave of corporate pledges tied to South Korea’s AI ambitions. Executives from seven global companies, including Amazon, attended the APEC meeting with President Lee and collectively promised $9 billion in total investments over the next five years.
AWS’s broader Asia-Pacific strategy
AWS’s South Korean investment sits inside a much larger regional deployment. CEO Matt Garman provided context on the company’s commitment to the wider Asia-Pacific region during a business event at the summit. “At AWS, we’ve invested and committed to investment of an additional $40 billion across 14 non-U.S. APEC countries and economies between now and 2028,” Garman said.
This immense figure is not solely a measure of regional build-out. According to Garman, the investment in APEC economies also creates a substantial economic boon back home. “And, that $40 billion actually drives an additional $45 billion in U.S. GDP and downstream benefit, benefiting all of the APEC economy.”
This global capital flow underscores a strategy to promote the worldwide adoption of American AI technologies and support high-value job creation within the US, creating what Amazon terms a virtuous cycle of international investment supporting domestic innovation.
South Korea’s growing AI Ecosystem
The move by AWS is one part of a collective $9 billion pledge from seven global firms to South Korea over the next five years, emphasizing the country’s burgeoning status as a key destination for digital infrastructure spending.
South Korea’s tech landscape offers fertile ground for Amazon’s AI ambitions. The country is home to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, two of the world’s leading memory chip manufacturers- key suppliers of the components that power AI data centers.
The latest momentum follows earlier announcements, including plans by ChatGPT developer OpenAI to establish joint ventures with Samsung and SK to build two large data centers, dubbed a “Korean-style Stargate.” OpenAI has already signed preliminary deals to source the necessary memory chips for its data centers from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, an unsurprising detail given that South Korea ranks second globally for paying ChatGPT subscribers, just behind the United States.
AWS’s deeper investment further anchors South Korea’s position as a critical node in the global AI infrastructure network—linking the data-heavy capabilities of American cloud giants with Asia’s semiconductor expertise.
