Luxon is due to speak at an AWS event in Auckland this morning, where the tech giant is announcing the launch of its Auckland data centre “Region”.
Local data centres are a good thing. They are faster at serving up cloud-based work and entertainment services, and solve “data sovereignty” issues for banks, government departments and others wary of storing files offshore (Amazon has previously serviced NZ AWS clients from data centres on Australia’s East Coast).
But some West Aucklanders could be wondering, what has been built, and where?
At Westgate Northwest Auckland, Costco and other retailers have recently been joined by giant “hyperscale” data centres built by DCI (owned by Canada’s Brookfield) and, on a $1b budget, a second built by Microsoft. A $300m-plus CDC data centre is just down the road in Hobsonville.
A fourth supermassive data centre looked like it was underway, on a site where Amazon has bought land.
The story began in early 2022, when then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a trip to Seattle, and met Microsoft and Amazon. The PM had been talking to the tech giants for two years about investing in data centres in NZ.
A March 2022 Overseas Investment Office decision gave Amazon the green light to acquire land at an undisclosed location for the “establishment of a business, being a cluster of data centres in Auckland … Consideration [price]: Between $250,000,000 and $350,000,000″.
Property records show Amazon Data Ltd subsequently bought a 26,411sq m block of land at 73 Fred Taylor Drive, Westgate, in June 2022 and a 13,345sq m block at 75 Fred Taylor Drive in August 2022.
In January this year, Amazon also bought the adjoining 2018sq m 77 Fred Taylor Drive.
All told, the land is the size of four rugby fields.
Amazon originally said its AWS (Amazon Web Services) data “Region” would open in Auckland at the end of 2024.
The tech giant has always refused to comment on the location, citing a global security policy. Nor has it ever provided any tech specs.
In March 2024, RNZ reported that final consent for the Westgate build had been held up by drainage issues.
It seemed the issues were resolved later that year as preliminary earthworks began. But works seemed to have stalled when the Herald visited in January, June and the weekend just gone.
In June, the Herald asked Auckland Council if the drainage issue remained an obstacle.
A council spokeswoman said: “There are no issues from a regulatory perspective, including with the resource consent, which have led to a pause in construction. You will need to check in with the site owner to confirm why works have stopped.”
Amazon declined comment. Contractor Naylor Love did not respond to a request for comment. On-site, a Naylor Love staffer told Tech Insider: “We’re under NDA [a non-disclosure agreement]. We can’t comment.”
Campbell Barbour, general manager of NZ Retail Property Group, which has been developing Westgate – the western side of which has become something of a tech hub with a Telsa facility under construction, huge Microsoft and DCI data centres (both finished) and now Amazon – told Tech Insider in June: “We have not been involved with the AWS site and despite noticing in passing that progress seems to have slowed aren’t able to shed any light.”
The Amazon-owed site has long featured in NZRPG promotional material, which is based on public records (see a high-resolution version of its Westgate master plan, featuring the AWS data centre, here) and with good reason. It was shaping up to be one of NZ’s largest construction projects.
Amazon has this week reiterated that it never releases location details for a data centre Region.
Tech Insider has previously speculated that AWS could be co-locating in CDC or DCI-owned facilities. Co-location is common in many markets. It’s fundamental to DCI’s business.
Amazon has declined to comment on any possible co-location, which can be a resource-intensive and expensive setup if a tech giant moves its own servers into a facility owned and run by the likes of DCI.
It also commissioned a study that said the AWS Region would deliver a US$11b (NZ$18.6b) boost to NZ’s GDP.
Unlike Amazon and Microsoft, DCI has been happy to reveal the location of its smaller, now-operational Westgate site (its address and photos feature on its website) and its still under-construction Albany site, which it said would cost $400m (including $68m for the land; DCI said it would spend a total of around $600m including Westgate, providing more than 50 megawatts of capacity).
Amazon’s Westgate site is similar in size to the Microsoft facility now open a block over – where costs were put at $1.06b (read a breakdown here).
But it’s still smaller than the combined footprint of CDC’s twin data centres in Silverdale and nearby Hobsonville – where half-owner Infratil put the initial build cost at $300 million before recent expansions that have included a doubling of the Hobsonville site – or DCI’s second facility, in Albany, which is easily the largest announced so far; its 5.8ha site will house more than 80,000 servers.
Amazon announced its plans for an Auckland data centre Region in 2021, saying it would spend $7.5b billion on the project over 10 years (for land, construction, staff, services and hardware) and create 1000 jobs, including those for the construction phase (data centres are highly automated once up and running).
Earlier, Mercury Energy said it signed a deal to supply AWS with electricity from its new Turitea South wind farm.
Under a power purchase agreement (PPA), Amazon will buy about 50% of the renewable energy capacity of the 103 megawatt wind farm, near Palmerston North, from Mercury.
“The new AWS Region in New Zealand will help serve the growing demand for cloud services across the country and empower organisations of all sizes to accelerate their digital transformation,” Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS,” said in a statement this morning.
“With this launch, businesses can now leverage advanced AWS technologies, from core cloud capabilities to artificial intelligence and machine learning, all while meeting local data residency requirements. By investing in New Zealand’s digital infrastructure, we’re proud to support the country’s economic growth, foster innovation, and help position it as a technology hub in the Asia Pacific region.”
“The launch of the AWS Region in New Zealand is an exciting moment. This investment in digital infrastructure and Amazon’s commitment to digital skills can accelerate New Zealand technology businesses and help New Zealanders to move into highly skilled, secure, and well-paid technology jobs – which exist right across the economy, from tech companies to various sectors including agriculture, finance, retail, professional services, government, and many more,” NZTech CEO Graeme Muller said.
Amazon says customers using the Auckland region include Vector, Education Perfect, Foodstuffs, Mercury, the Ministry of Transport, Xero and TVNZ.
* Amazon’s market cap is US$2.4 trillion, making it the fourth most valuable listed company in the world behind Apple, worth US$3.9t at Monday’s close, Microsoft at US$4t and Nvidia at US$4.4t.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
