Manuel Bohnet: Amazon Web Services' NZ country manager on Amazon's $7.5 billion investment plan for New Zealand

There's hopes the promised 1,000 new jobs created from Amazon's locally based data centres will go to Kiwis.

The tech giant's investing $7.5 billion into the Auckland-based centres, which go live today.

It'll mean New Zealand customers can use the new cloud region to run workloads and store data locally.

Amazon Web Services country manager Manuel Bohnet says they're taking a long-term view with this project.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amazon has today unveiled its data centers. It's committed to
invest more than seven and a half billion dollars in
New Zealand. Manual Bonnett is Amazon's Web Services New Zealand
country manager and with us Manuel.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello, Hello Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
What are you spending the seven and a half billion
dollars on?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, we just announced the launch of our aw AS
Asia Pacific New Zealand Region and of course a big
part of the investment will be in this region. The
region is a cluster of data centers, so as you
would expect, there is hardware, software, but also energy and
people to run these data centers.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Of course, Oh I see. So it's not seven and
a half billion for New Zealand. It's seven and a
half billion for Asia Pacific.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
No, No, it's seven and a half billion for New Zealand.
The region is here. We just called the region the
Asia Pacific New Zealand Region, but it's the local region
as local as it.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Gets, okay. And so this is just for running the
data center. Is that how much it costs to run them?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Is it? That's the investment. So it's hardware and software.
We obviously bring hardware, our own hardware to New Zealand.
But we also invest in software, and then we have
operational cost like the energy, the personnel, the people to
run it. So overall it's a big investment. And next
to that, next to the seven and a half billion
that you mentioned, we are also expecting to support a

(01:12):
thousand new jobs, and we are really investing in building skills.
So skills are really important because next to technology, we
really want to make sure that we train and upskill
the people using it.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
So I noticed that you guys had pledged seven and
a half billion dollars in twenty twenty one. Have you
already burned through that seven and a half and this
is another seven and a half No, we.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Are actually confirming that number, right, so we have now
announced the region to be live nice of many day.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
No, Wright, are you telling me this is the same
amount of money that you announced four years ago with
justin Doun.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, we are confirming the number, and we are announcing
that now the infrastructure investment that we made is live
as of today, and that there is more to come
in terms of the jobs that we have confirmed and
also the skills investment that I just mentioned.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, have you built any data centers.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
So a region is a cluster of data centers, and
of course we have chosen the locations that we choose
to build out our availability zones. The region consists of
multiple availability zones. We have three of these availability zones
here and of course that involve data centers.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Cool and how many of these have you actually built
as opposed to renting or leasing.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
So we are choosing facilities based on the needs that
we have, and we have thirty eight of these regions globally.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
So exactly what you're being weirried about this tho, aren't
you Manuel because you haven't built any have you?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm telling you we chose now the locations that are
the best located.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
What happened Why didn't you guys build it? Wasn't that
part of the announcement with just in the back in
twenty twenty one that you were going to build some.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, we always take a long term view and as
part of that we look at all the options and
I'm super happy that we found the right locations for
the region to be live as of today.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Okay, what happened to the West Auckland one where you
flattened it? You got rid of the Wetland. Are you
going to build anything there?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, I mean for now we are announcing that the
region is live, so the availability zones at the manual.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I just need to tell you, mate, listen. This audience
that listens to this is really smart and they can hear.
You're not answering the question. So you can keep on
with that strategy if you want to. But I need
to warn you. We know you're not answering my question.
I'm gonna try it again. What are you doing with
the West Aalkland site? Are you going to build anything there?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I can't comment on the side. I'm basically I'm announcing
the launch of the region and the side, as you
can tell, is not part of it.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Okay, thanks mate, appreciate it. Go well. Manuel Bonnette, New
Zealand country manager, Amazon Web Services. Oh my gosh, guys,
how bummed out are you about this announcement? I thought
when I heard luxing on with Hosking this morning, I
thought this was awesome. I was like, yay, seven and
a half billion dollars. This is the same money that
they announced with Jacinda just four years ago, and how
many what is this announcement of an announcement and Also,

(03:52):
you should go check out the West Aalkland site. Yeah,
they've smashed the thing down. There's nothing going up there,
sounds like sounds like they haven't built a single day
ARTA center. They've basically gone and hired other people's data centers,
which is not really helping. It's not helping the situations.
Those data centers would have been there before anyway. Whatever.
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