- Investment includes increased Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure in the Paris area to support France’s flourishing generative AI opportunity, and logistics infrastructure in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to increase delivery speeds and improve sustainable deliveries for customers.
- The new jobs announced today are in addition to the 2,000 new permanent jobs already announced for 2024.
For more than 20 years, Amazon has been choosing France and forging strong and lasting relationships with French citizens and businesses. Since 2010, we have invested more than €20 billion into our French operations to drive innovation, develop our infrastructures, and create quality jobs; all with the view to serve our customers better and have a positive impact on the French economy and territories.
Thanks to these investments, Amazon has become the largest net creator of jobs in France since 2010, according to the Observatoire de l’Emploi et de l’Investissement en France, employing more than 22,000 permanent employees in our offices, across Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) infrastructure in France, and in more than 35 logistics sites across the country.
As part of the Choose France Summit, Amazon is proud to announce the continuation of our investments in the country, supporting the expansion of our logistics network and cloud infrastructure to benefit our customers and France’s economy.
“Amazon’s first investment in Europe dates back to 1998, in the early days of the democratization of the internet. Although the world has changed dramatically in the last 25 years, our desire to invest in France and Europe has remained the same. We now have more than 220,000 employees in Europe and have invested more than €215 billion in the region since 2010.
This new investment by Amazon in France of more than €1.2 billion will support the creation of over 3,000 additional permanent jobs in the country. It is further evidence of our commitment to offer fast and reliable deliveries to customers, and to enable organizations in France to continue to build and modernize their business using the AWS cloud and the range of generative artificial intelligence services they can access and build there.”
Investing in logistics network: a key driver to improve customer experience and support the development of French territories
Amazon today operates more than 35 logistics facilities in France. This new investment will support the expansion of our logistics network, allowing us to reduce the time and distance necessary to serve our customers, increasing speeds to deliver, enhancing the customer experience, and reducing carbon emissions.
Frédéric Duval, Country Manager Amazon.fr, said: “Amazon has been choosing France for more than 20 years and we are proud to announce today the continuation of our investments in the country. This new investment of more than €1.2 billion will create more than 3,000 jobs and increase our footprint in France, where we have been the largest net creator of jobs since 2010. These jobs are in addition to the 2,000 jobs we announced for 2024. The expansion of our logistics network supports local economic development, creates quality jobs and allows us to reduce the carbon footprint of our deliveries while improving the overall customer experience.”
In addition to enhancing opportunities for customers, the expansion of Amazon’s fulfilment centre network also delivers strong socio-economic benefits. According to research by Roland Berger, Amazon’s latest fulfilment centre in Augny, near Metz, has contributed to the revitalisation of a region affected by deindustrialisation and demilitarisation by creating 4,000 jobs in the first year of opening. This makes Amazon the biggest private employer in Moselle, and makes the Augny site the second biggest single job creator in France since 2010. The expansion of our logistics network also serves our sustainability objectives: the opening of the site in Augny has reduced the distance travelled by packages downstream of the site by 25% on average, making it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by 81 grams per package shipped from the site.
Investing in cloud infrastructure: a key lever for the success of French companies on the global stage
The investment in AWS cloud infrastructure aims to meet the escalating demand for AWS services in France, driven by the immense potential of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). According to a report by Strand Partners commissioned by AWS, the number of French companies adopting AI increased by 35% between 2022 and 2023, from 20% to 27%. If France maintains this pace of AI adoption, it could bring €99 billion in additional gross value added (GVA) to the French economy by 2030.
Julien Groues, VP AWS France & Southern Europe, highlights the investment’s significance: “France stands at the dawn of an unprecedented economic opportunity driven by AI. Companies across industries recognize AI’s immense benefits for unlocking growth and boosting productivity. With this commitment to expand our cloud capacity, we are empowering organizations in France to fully harness the potential of transformative AI technologies to spur innovation, enhance competitiveness, and create new business value. This commitment aligns with AWS’ comprehensive AI strategy—to provide our customers the broadest selection of AI services with the highest performance, security, and compliance with data residency regulations, all at the lowest possible cost for our customers.”
This investment by AWS is part of a €6 billion, 15-year investment plan for the period 2017-2031 to develop its cloud infrastructure in France. An AWS economic impact study estimates that this investment plan will contribute €16.8 billion to France’s GDP over this period, while supporting an average of 5,271 full-time jobs annually in the local supply chain.
The planned investment was welcomed by French AI start-ups. “As an AI start-up with French roots actively invested in France’s thriving open-source AI ecosystem, we are excited to see AWS’ commitment to the development and growth of local start-ups,” says Clément Delangue, CEO and co-founder, Hugging Face.
As a major investor in France, Amazon fully supports the efforts made to strengthen France’s economic attractiveness and we remain deeply committed to expanding our presence in the country, ultimately driving significant benefits for consumers, French companies, and the broader economy. Contributing to France’s ongoing development also means addressing social inequalities. Amazon supports non-profit organisations that have an impact in each of its regions of operation to tackle inequalities, whether through local groups or local branches of national associations. Amazon’s Future Engineer childhood-to-career programme, aimed at increasing access to computer science education for students from underserved and underrepresented communities, has given more than half a million children and students increased access to computer science and digital development opportunities since launching in France in 2020.
AWS offers a number of education, training, and certification programmes to help people in France develop their digital skills and use cloud technologies. AWS has trained more than 900,000 people in the EU, and more than 200,000 people in France, in cloud skills since 2017, as part of its commitment to provide free cloud skills training to 29 million people by 2025. It has already trained more than 21 million people worldwide. Amazon also launched its ‘AI Ready’ programme last November, aiming to provide a further 2 million people worldwide with free AI training by 2025.
To find out more about Amazon's economic contribution in France, click here.
