The official opening of the data centres comprising the United States cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) region in New Zealand turned into political fisticuffs, after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appeared to take credit for the large technology investment.
"We are going to build the most advanced small country on Earth and for that to happen, government, partnering with business, and with the community is how we're going to get that job done," Luxon said Tuesday morning, speaking at the Auckland launch of the AWS region.
“Well, I have to tell you, that has well and truly changed under this government, because we are open for business and we are obsessed with growth, growth, growth above everything. And we welcome investment to New Zealand because that's how we actually provide jobs for Kiwis, that's actually how we lift our incomes by supporting new businesses, and we invest in existing ones that are thirsty for new capital injections to leverage further growth," he added (quotes as provided to media).
Labour leader Chris Hipkins was quick to draw and fire back at Luxon, saying the Prime Minister's ego had again got ahead of him, by claiming sole credit for the AWS investment.
“In an embarrassing faux pas, Christopher Luxon is claiming a $7.5 billion investment in New Zealand as something he’s done, when in reality he’s had very little to do with it,” Hipkins said.
“He’s the FIGJAM Prime Minister. He spends so much time and energy claiming everything Labour did was wrong, now he’s claiming Labour’s achievements as his own," Hipkins added.
Readers who wish to enlighten themselves as to the meaning of the robust-language FIGJAM acronym, attributed to Brisbane rappers Butterfingers, may do so with the help of their preferred Internet search engine.
For the record, the AWS region was announced in 2021 with then-Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern travelling to the cloud provider's headquarters in Seattle for the occasion.
The headline figures that were quoted in 2021 and are still bandied about today include a total investment of $7.5 billion from AWS, and nearly $11 billion added to New Zealand's gross domestic product as a result of the region.
Some 1000 full-time jobs are dangled in front of the public as well, but how much actual new employment and money will be injected into New Zealand's economy isn't clear. Along with other tech firms, AWS which has 1.6 million employees worldwide, has cut jobs recently. Its chief executive Andy Jassy said generative artificial intelligence use would result in job reduction at the company.
Microsoft has also spent money on opening a cloud computing region in New Zealand which it hoped to do in 2023, but ended up launching in December 2024 instead.
AWS was gunning for a 2024 launch for its region, but ran into delays.
As recently as March last year, the completion date of the data centre region was looking uncertain, as Amazon was unable resolve a planning problem with storm and waste water disposal for its facility in West Auckland.
Building the largest tier of cloud infrastructure, often referred to as hyperscale, is a game in which only the biggest and richest tech companies such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba play in.
New Zealand is a late-comer to the big cloud provider party. Australia saw its first AWS region opening in Sydney in 2012, with a second launching in Melbourne a decade after.
There are several reasons for cloud providers building facilities in a particular country, including resilience, storing data in legally prescribed jurisdictions, and better performance through closer proximity to customers. AWS has bought 4.2 hectares of land by the Westgate development centre in West Auckland to build its region, which will feature local availability zones with three data centres that are geographically separated from each other.
Several New Zealand government departments, academical institutions and private companies have migrated to the cloud, either fully or partly; AWS also operates a partner programme, with tech companies such as Datacom and security vendor CyberCX providing cloud expertise to customers.
5 Comments
Do we have any idea of the volumetric water allocations granted for each of these facilities via their resource consents?
I hope they're bringing a big UPS, backup generators and wind turbines/solar panels with them - lol
as for FIGJAM "we are obsessed with growth, growth, growth above everything" Luxon - for how many cents in the dollar is he prepared to sell NZ out to achieve his "obsession"?
Important to remember, AWS operates approximately 135 hyperscale data centers in more than 30 countries globally.
We are not special just because we have one of these data centers. It's good AWS is building here. But needs the right perspective. It's not the Olympics and Aotearoa punching above its weight.
There are some nuances around that, which I'll see if I can get a story written on.
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