Amazon (AMZN.US) will invest $10.5 billion in the UK over the next five years to develop its cloud business.

Amazon's (AMZN.US) cloud division AWS announced on Wednesday that it will invest 8 billion pounds (about $10.5 billion) in the UK over the next five years to develop its cloud business, building, operating and maintaining data centers. AWS expects the investment to contribute 14 billion pounds to the UK's gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of 2028 and create more than 14,000 jobs, according to its estimates.

Tanuja Randery, managing director of AWS, said the company considers a variety of factors when choosing data center locations around the world, including power supply, water resources and local environment. She highlighted the use of artificial intelligence as one of the key factors driving the growth of cloud services.

British Chancellor Rachel Reeves welcomed Amazon's investment. Reeves said in a statement from the UK Treasury: "This 8 billion pound investment marks the start of the economic recovery and shows the UK is open for business." The Treasury also revealed that the government is actively negotiating with AWS to explore the possibility of further investment in other parts of the UK.

It is worth noting that this is the latest addition to AWS's expansion in Europe. Earlier this year, AWS announced a 15.7 billion euro investment in Spain. In addition, AWS announced that it expects to invest up to 7.8 billion euros in Germany to build dedicated cloud infrastructure in Europe by 2040. Besides Europe, AWS also announced similar long-term projects in Mexico, the US, Saudi Arabia and Singapore this year.

Industry analysts and corporate executives noted that many large enterprise customers have started to increase their spending on cloud computing again after pausing last year, driven by the interest in artificial intelligence, which has rebounded the $270 billion cloud infrastructure market. AWS is seeking global expansion as it faces increasing competition from companies such as Microsoft (MSFT.US).