Amazon Web Services (AWS) is making a massive financial commitment to the public sector. On Monday, the company announced a $50 billion investment to build “high-performance computing infrastructure” specifically for the U.S. government.
This extensive buildout aims to expand federal agencies’ access to AWS AI services. The project will add a staggering 1.3 gigawatts of compute power. Consequently, government organisations will gain broader access to vital products. These include Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Bedrock, and model customisation tools. Additionally, agencies will utilise Anthropic’s Claude chatbot and various model deployment services.
AWS expects to break ground on these ambitious data centre projects in 2026.
The goal of this investment is clear. AWS wants to remove technology barriers that have previously held the government back. AWS CEO Matt Garman said:
Our investment in purpose-built government AI and cloud infrastructure will fundamentally transform how federal agencies leverage supercomputing.
Garman emphasised that this move positions America to lead in the AI era. By providing expanded access to advanced AI capabilities, AWS enables agencies to accelerate critical missions. These missions range from strengthening cybersecurity to advancing drug discovery.
Amazon Web Services is no stranger to federal partnerships. The tech giant began building cloud infrastructure for the U.S. government back in 2011.
Three years later, the company launched AWS Top Secret-East. This was the first air-gapped commercial cloud designed to handle classified workloads. Furthermore, AWS introduced the AWS Secret Region in 2017, which currently holds accredited access to all levels of security classification.
This announcement comes as tech giants increasingly pitch their AI services to the public sector. The competition has intensified over the past year.
In January, OpenAI launched a version of ChatGPT designed exclusively for federal agencies. Later, in August, OpenAI announced a deal offering government access to the enterprise tier of ChatGPT for just $1 a year.
That same month, Anthropic matched the offer. They granted the U.S. government access to the enterprise tiers of its Claude chatbot for $1. However, Google undercut both competitors shortly after. They announced “Google for Government” for an even lower price of 47 cents for the first year.