By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) said on Monday it would invest more than 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in its French operations and create more than 3,000 permanent jobs in the country.
The French presidency had said on Sunday that Amazon and other companies, including GSK and Accenture (NYSE:ACN), would announce investments worth billions as part of the country's annual "Choose France" event, which begins on Monday.
Amazon Web Services' (AWS) investment would increase cloud infrastructure in the Paris area to support France's flourishing generative AI opportunity, and logistics infrastructure in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the company said in a statement.
Increased popularity of GenAI has been fuelling demand for cloud services, and France has become a hub for AI, with promising startups such as Mistral and Poolside. Companies such as Meta (NASDAQ:META) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have set up AI research centres in the country.
Amazon has invested more than 20 billion euros in its French operations since 2010 and employs more than 22,000 permanent employees across its cloud and online retail businesses.
"These jobs are in addition to the 2,000 jobs we announced for 2024," said Frédéric Duval, country manager at Amazon France.
A part of the investment would also be used to expand its logistics network to increase speed of delivery and reduce carbon emissions. It has more than 35 logistics facilities in France.
($1 = 0.9286 euros)