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Amazon to invest $7.2 billion in Israel, launches Tel Aviv data centers

“Israeli society and democracy are coming out strengthened,” Netanyahu said in apparent reference to the passing of the first piece of legislation for judicial reform.

By JNS

Amazon.com plans to invest about $7.2 billion in Israel through 2037, and announced on Tuesday the launch of its Amazon Web Services data centers in Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the announcement during a visit on Tuesday to IDF Central Command Headquarters in central Tel Aviv.

“We were told today that Amazon is investing 26 billion shekels in the Israeli economy; this is after we were told that Intel intends to invest $25 billion and that NVIDIA is building a supercomputer here,” he said.

“Israeli society and democracy are coming out strengthened,” he added, apparently referring to the passing into law last week of a key piece of his government’s judicial reform legislation, which critics have argued would weaken Israel’s democracy and economy.

The launch of the AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region gives customers the option of running their applications from data centers in Israel, Amazon said in a statement.

AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing platform.

“Customers can securely store data in Israel while serving users in the vicinity with even lower latency,” the firm said.

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“The establishment of the Region will enable us to migrate substantial governmental workloads to the cloud, and we are confident that it will help us accelerate digital transformation in the public sector,” said Israel’s Accountant General Yali Rothenberg, according to Reuters.

Amazon noted in its statement that Israel is at the forefront of cloud computing, and that AWS began supporting startups in Israel in 2013 through its AWS Activate program.

In April 2021, Israel selected AWS as its primary cloud provider as part of a framework to enable government departments, including ministries and municipalities, to accelerate their digital transformation.

Among AWS customers in Israel are AI21 Labs, Bank Leumi, CyberArk and Ichilov Hospital.

The Tel Aviv Region launch expands AWS to 32 geographic regions around the world, the company said.