Amazon (AMZN) to Spend $10 Billion on AI Data Centers in North Carolina

Technology giant Amazon (AMZN) says it plans to spend $10 billion on new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers located in North Carolina.

Amazon has earmarked $100 billion in capital expenditures this year alone, with most of that money going to AI projects. Like other major technology companies, Amazon is racing to build out its artificial intelligence capacity and power AI products and services.

Amazon rivals such as Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (META) are also spending heavily on their AI infrastructure and capacity. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has called generative AI a “once-in-a-lifetime” business opportunity.

Job Creation

In addition to boosting Amazon’s AI capabilities, the investment in North Carolina will create roughly 500 jobs in the state, said the Seattle-based e-commerce company. “Our investment will support the future of AI from (Amazon Web Services) data centers in the Tar Heel State,” wrote Amazon in a blog post.

Amazon has announced several new AI products over the past year, including its own language models, Trainium chips, a shopping chatbot, and a marketplace for third-party models called “Bedrock.” The company has also invested $8 billion in privately held AI startup Anthropic that’s known for its Claude chatbot. AMZN stock is down 6% this year.

Is AMZN Stock a Buy?

The stock of Amazon has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 48 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 47 Buy and one Hold recommendations assigned in the last three months. The average AMZN price target of $241.29 implies 16.86% upside from current levels.

Read more analyst ratings on AMZN stock