💾 Investment Surge: AWS will invest over $5 billion by 2031 in data centers across Incheon and Gyeonggi — Amazon’s largest greenfield project in Korea. Back in June, another $4 billion was pledged for a joint AI data hub with SK Group in Ulsan.
🤝 Politics Backs AI: The announcement followed a meeting between AWS CEO Matt Garman and President Lee Jae-myung at the APEC CEO Summit. Lee is pushing a nationwide “AI Highway” to connect research, industry, and startups.
⚙️ Capacity Race: Since ChatGPT, the industry has been building data centers at record pace. AWS chief Matt Garman is countering Microsoft, Google, and Meta with major Asia investments, pledging $40 billion across 14 APEC countries (excluding the US) between 2025 and 2028.
🏗️ Korea’s Role: Meanwhile, Renault, Amkor, and Siemens Healthineers announced $9 billion in new industrial projects over the next five years — expanding EV production, chip manufacturing, and medical tech facilities.
⚡️ Local Impact: More computing power, new cloud jobs, and rising demand for energy and infrastructure. Seoul promises investor support. AWS calls AI agents the next “game-changer” for business.
Big Picture:
Korea is becoming AWS’s Asian nerve center — delivering lower latency for APAC clients and more “sovereign AI” options for enterprises and governments. Korea brings manufacturing and talent; AWS brings compute power — together they’re building an Asian AI highway in the fast lane.
Asia is pouring billions into AI infrastructure and laying concrete for data centers, while Europe hosts workshops and waits for “adoption.” Without real funding and investment programs, it all stays PowerPoint deep. If it’s just demo days and compliance manuals, Europe’s basically doing prompt-engineering for policy — progress is built with capital, not canvas.
The China Survival Guide for Western Businesses
Entity setup, WeChat strategy, hiring your first local team. 12+ years on the ground in Shanghai.
