Amazon’s Australian operations have surged to nearly $12 billion in annual revenue, powered by a sharp rise in demand for data centres as AI investment accelerates globally.

New filings with the corporate regulator show the tech giant generated $11.9 billion locally in 2025, up almost 50% year-on-year.

Amazon employs about 8,750 people in Australia and paid $134 million in income tax last year.

While all four of Amazon’s Australian divisions recorded growth, the standout performer was its data centre arm. Amazon Corporate Services, which provides data hosting to related entities, delivered $2.2 billion in revenue – up 61% from $1.4 billion the previous year.

That figure highlights the increasing weight of data centre activity within Amazon’s local business, now accounting for roughly 18% of total Australian revenue. The division also recorded nearly $1 billion in prepaid capacity purchases, signalling continued strong demand.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing arm, generated a further $4.7 billion in local revenue, up 20%, though profitability remained slim due to internal service costs. Combined, AWS and data centre-related services contributed close to $6.9 billion – more than half of Amazon’s Australian revenue base.

By comparison, Amazon’s retail and media operations brought in $4.8 billion, including $3.5 billion from online sales, $633 million from Prime subscriptions and $392 million from advertising.

The surge in infrastructure demand comes amid a global AI investment boom, with more than $1 trillion poured into the sector over the past three years. In Australia, tech firms have pledged tens of billions to build out data centre capacity, which requires significant energy and water resources.

Amazon is positioning itself at the centre of this shift. The company recently signed nine renewable energy deals across New South Wales and Victoria, adding 430 megawatts of capacity to support its expanding cloud and AI infrastructure. It is also planning to invest up to $20 billion in Australian data centres by 2029.

The broader ecosystem is following suit. Local operator NextDC recently raised $750 million to expand its footprint, while AI infrastructure firm Firmus has secured backing from Nvidia at a multi-billion-dollar valuation.