SYDNEY: In a move with the potential of raking in billions of dollars for the Victoria economy and help it recover from the devastating coronavirus pandemic, US tech giant Amazon has chosen Melbourne for a new AWS cloud infrastructure region.

The company’s Melbourne datacentre will open in the second half of 2022 and create 90 jobs in the immediate future. The new region adds to its existing Sydney region – launched in 2012 – and eight regions in total across Asia Pacific.

Amazon says it has invested $3 billion into Australia over the past decade, a number that is set to skyrocket as businesses across the country complete digital transformations and shift their workloads to the cloud.

AWS’s many customers in Australia include CBA, Woodside, David Jones, NAB, Telstra, Qantas, Atlassian and Canva.