Amazon plans $50bn AI push to power US government supercomputing

Amazon is preparing to pour up to $50bn into expanding artificial intelligence and supercomputing capacity for United States government customers, marking one of the largest cloud infrastructure investments ever aimed at the public sector.

The company confirmed the move on Monday, outlining a project set to break ground in 2026 that will deliver nearly 1.3 gigawatts of new AI and high-performance computing capacity across AWS Top Secret, AWS Secret and AWS GovCloud regions. The expansion will rely on new data centres fitted with advanced computing and networking systems. For scale, one gigawatt of power is roughly equivalent to the energy needed for about 750,000 US households.

“This investment removes the technology barriers that have held the government back,” said Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman.

AWS already serves more than 11,000 government agencies, and the new buildout is designed to deepen that relationship by giving federal departments broader access to Amazon’s expanding AI toolkit. This includes Amazon SageMaker for training and tailoring models, Amazon Bedrock for deploying AI systems and agents, and core models such as Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude.

The aim is clear: help federal agencies develop bespoke AI solutions while driving down costs through dedicated, expanded computing capacity. It also reflects a wider race for technological dominance, with the US doubling down on AI development as China and other nations accelerate their own efforts.

Amazon is far from alone. OpenAI, Alphabet and Microsoft are all pouring billions into AI infrastructure, fuelling soaring demand for computing power. Investors are taking notice. Amazon shares climbed 1.7 percent in midday trading following the announcement.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Alphabet edged closer to a $4 trillion valuation, rising 4.7 percent and positioning itself to join an elite group of tech giants. Nvidia, fresh from announcing a supercomputer partnership with the US Department of Energy, also saw its stock lift by 1.8 percent after signalling stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue.