AWS opens Chile's first cloud region with more than $4 billion investment
Amazon Web Services has opened its first cloud infrastructure region in Chile to a select group of customers, backed by an investment of more than $4 billion. General availability is expected by the end of 2026.
- AWS has opened its first Chilean cloud infrastructure region to select customers.
- Amazon plans to invest more than $4 billion in Chile.
- General availability is expected by the end of 2026.
- The Region will launch with core cloud services, with Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker AI planned within the first year.
- AWS is targeting 300,000 cloud and AI learners in Chile by 2028.
Local infrastructure for Chilean organizations
The AWS South America (Chile) Region is the company's first in Chile and its third in Latin America, joining the existing South America (São Paulo) and Mexico (Central) Regions. AWS says the new Region is in early access, with general availability expected in the coming weeks and by the end of 2026.
An AWS Region is a physical location containing clusters of data centers. Each Region has at least three isolated and physically separate Availability Zones, with independent power, cooling, and physical security. The Chilean Region will join AWS's global network of 39 infrastructure Regions worldwide.
Early customers include BancoEstado de Chile, BTG, Cencosud, Consorcio, Itaú, and Ripley. The Region will allow organizations to run workloads and store content locally, with lower latency for users in Chile and across Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Peru. The area represents 123 million people and approximately $1.5 trillion in GDP, according to AWS.
Cloud services, compliance, and AI use cases
The Region will launch with core compute, storage, networking, and database services. Foundational artificial intelligence and machine learning services, including Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker AI, are scheduled to become available within the first year of launch.
AWS says local infrastructure will also help organizations address Chilean compliance requirements. The country's financial market regulator has established requirements for banks processing critical workloads through cloud services, while a new data protection law creates additional data residency obligations.
Joaquín Saul, chief information officer of BTG Pactual, said the Region creates opportunities to improve the bank's processing capacity and resilience and explore new artificial intelligence applications. LATAM Airlines is using Amazon Bedrock for an AI virtual assistant that resolves more than 32% of call center interactions without agent transfer. Copec says its multi-agent AI system on WhatsApp produced eight times faster response times and a three times reduction in abandonment.
Economic impact, skills, and sustainability
Amazon plans to invest more than $4 billion in Chile to support the Region. AWS estimates the investment will contribute more than $7.5 billion to Chile's GDP and support an average of 4,100 full-time equivalent jobs annually, including positions in telecommunications, construction, electricity generation, and data center operations.
AWS says it has trained more than 200,000 people in Chile in cloud skills since 2017 and is targeting 300,000 learners by 2028. AWS Academy currently reaches more than 111,000 students across 50 higher education institutions. AWS Entrena Chile, launched in September 2026, provides free AI and cloud training with support from Chile's Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Economy.
The Region will be primarily air-cooled and will not require the ongoing use of cooling water in operations. When fully operational, AWS says its Chilean data centers will be seven times more efficient than the industry average. The company also reports that a water project launched in Chile in August 2024 is expected to save about 200 million liters of water per year.
