E-commerce: Amazon to invest $35 bn in India by 2030
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Global e-commerce behemoth Amazon, Inc., will invest more than USD 35 billion in India, across all its businesses, until 2030, the media reported on Wednesday.
This announcement came within hours of the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in New Delhi, and the Redmond software giant committed USD 17.5 billion investment in India over the next five years to advance the country’s cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Amazon on Wednesday said it will make fresh investments of over USD 35 billion across all its businesses in India in the next five years. These investments will focus on business expansion as well as driving digitisation and export growth. Amazon plans to create one million additional job opportunities and deliver AI benefits to 15 million small businesses and Indian consumers.
Since 2010, Amazon has invested nearly USD 40 billion in India and has enabled over USD 20 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports. According to a report by Keystone Strategy, these investments have established Amazon as the largest foreign investor in India and enabler of e-commerce exports, and among the top job creators in the country.
Amit Agarwal, Senior VP-Emerging Markets, Amazon said, “We have been a part of India’s digital transformation journey over the past 15 years, with Amazon’s growth in India perfectly aligned with the vision of Atmanirbhar and Viksit Bharat. 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.”
Speaking at the Amazon Smbhav event, he said: “India continues to be one of the largest long-term opportunities for Amazon. Looking forward at the next five years, we plan to invest over USD 35 billion incrementally across our businesses.”
“We are excited to continue being a catalyst for India’s growth, as we democratise access to AI for millions of Indians, create 1 million job opportunities, and quadruple cumulative e-commerce exports enabled to USD 80 billion by 2030,” he stated.
Amazon said it plans to further accelerate digital transformation and strengthen infrastructure. “These investments are strategically aligned with India’s national priorities and will focus on expanding AI capabilities, enhancing logistics infrastructure, supporting small business growth and creating jobs.”
It said it supported approximately 2.8 million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal jobs across India in 2024, spanning technology, operations, logistics, retail, and creative services. “By 2030, the company plans to generate an additional one million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal jobs. These will stem from Amazon’s business expansion as well as its growing fulfilment and delivery network, which simultaneously supports parallel industries including packaging, manufacturing, and transportation services.”
Earlier this year, the e-commerce powerhouse invested Rs. 2,000 crores to build 17 new fulfilment centres, six sortation centres and 75 new delivery stations to enable faster deliveries. The company has been ramping up micro-fulfilment centres at a fast clip to grow Amazon Now, its 10-minute delivery service in cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, taking the count to 300 by end of the year.
The Seatle-based Amazon also announced the launch of Accelerate Exports, a manufacturing-focused initiative designed to connect digital entrepreneurs with trusted manufacturers while enabling manufacturers to become global sellers.
Earlier this month, Amazon had announced an investment of USD 12.7 billion in India to strengthen AI and web services through data centre expansion in Telangana and Maharashtra.
The company’s cumulative investments in India since 2010 are pegged at USD 40 billion, including compensation to employees and development of infrastructure.
Amazon’s marketplace online business was commercially launched in India in 2013.
With the latest committed investment, Amazon wants to further accelerate digital transformation, strengthen infrastructure, and support innovation across the country, according to a company statement.
Amazon’s new SME-related moves are expected to enable manufacturers to become successful global sellers. For this, Amazon plans to host on-ground onboarding drives in over 10 manufacturing clusters across India, including Tirupur, Kanpur, and Surat. At the Smbhav summit, Amazon announced a key partnership with the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India.
Besides boosting cumulative exports to USD 80 billion by 2030, the company is looking to deliver “AI benefits to 14 million small businesses and hundreds of millions of shoppers”. It also plans to provide AI education and career exploration opportunities to 4 million government school students.
Tech majors are looking at India closely while making their AI investment bets. Besides Microsoft and Amazon, Google has promised AI investments in India. In October, Google committed an investment of USD 15 billion to build an AI data centre in Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). Google is also in partnership with Reliance Industries to set up an AI-focused cloud region.
