Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, will expand its presence in South Australia with the opening of a new office at the state’s innovation precinct, Lot Fourteen, in the heart of Adelaide.
Amazon said its new Adelaide office would house Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud giant’s computing subsidiary, and Amazon Sciences, a team carrying out world-leading artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) research to improve the customer experience for Amazon.com customers.
Sarah Bassett, AWS’s Head of South and Western Australia, said AWS teams would provide support and cloud enablement to local businesses and government agencies to assist with their digital transformation journeys and assist local businesses to become more competitive on the global stage.
“AWS provides South Australian customers with access to the latest technology to expand their business into global markets from their home state, improve their customer experience, and lower their operating costs,” Ms Bassett said.
“We look forward to helping South Australia to grow their emerging tech workforce, and to drive future innovation from the state.”
Minister for Trade and Investment Stephen Patterson welcomed the addition of Amazon to Lot Fourteen’s already impressive line-up, which includes the Australian Space Agency, the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, MIT bigdata Living Lab, the Australian Institute of Machine Learning, and the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre.
“The addition of Amazon to Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen precinct bolsters South Australia’s position as a world leader across space, cyber, defence, high-tech, and big data,” Minister Patterson said.
“Using AWS, local companies of all sizes and across all industries will be able to tap into the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, providing companies with the opportunity to deploy specific applications, giving businesses greater flexibility.”
Premier Steven Marshall said the company plans to create more than 50 jobs by 2024.
“Not only will Amazon create more jobs for South Australians, the company will grow its innovation programs to support local companies, from startups to bigger businesses, and government organisations, which is great news for South Australia’s overall high-tech credentials,” Mr Marshall continued.
“This announcement is yet another example of our state being a magnet for investment, with Accenture already setting up shop in Adelaide, and now Amazon.
“The decision by Amazon to invest here is proof that South Australia is a major drawcard to international companies across high-tech and high-growth sectors.”
