In an announcement Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, said it plans to invest $5 billion in Mexico over the next 15 years as a part of a “long-term commitment” in the region.
A portion of that investment is a new server region launching today, AWS Mexico (Central) Region, that will allow AWS customers to run applications and serve end users from AWS data centers located in Mexico. AWS estimates that construction and ongoing operation of AWS Mexico will add approximately $10 billion to Mexico’s GDP and support roughly 7,000 “full time equivalent jobs.”
To be clear, AWS won’t be hiring ~7,000 new Mexico-based staff. Rather, the company is anticipating that “external businesses” within the “AWS supply chain in Mexico,” like construction and telecommunications firms, will create these jobs.
That may turn out to be an optimistic estimate. Data center projects often create fewer jobs than promised.
The AWS Mexico server region, which AWS first announced last February, is the company’s third infrastructure project in the country after smaller efforts in 2020 and 2023.
The data center market in Mexico is booming. According to one source, tech companies are expected to spend over $7 billion on data center infrastructure in the country in the next five years, and around a dozen projects are currently underway.
The city of Querétaro, where AWS Mexico is located, has become the investment epicenter. Google launched a cloud data center in Querétaro in December, while Microsoft spun up a server farm in the city last May.
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As many as 73 data centers are expected to be constructed in Mexico over the next five years — a volume that experts say will seriously impact the country’s power grid. According to the Mexican Data Center Association (MDCA), an industry group, the new installations could consume as much as 1,492MWh of electricity by 2029, enough to power ~150,000 homes.
To meet the energy demand, the MDCA estimates that the Mexican government and companies will need to invest at least $8.73 billion to upgrade Mexico’s grid and power supplies.
Environmental advocates have also raised concerns about the data centers’ long-term impact. Data centers are typically water-hungry; they require water not only to cool components like chips, but to maintain safe operating humidity levels. Querétaro has been suffering from drought for two years, and Mexico’s 2025 dry season is expected to last for at least six months.
AWS said that its AWS Mexico data center will be air-cooled and “will not require the ongoing use of cooling water in operations.” Microsoft has said that its data center in the region would use new tech to reduce its use of water for cooling, and Google has pledged to partner with “environmentally responsible” supplies to reduce consumption.
