AWS opens first Chile cloud region
AWS has opened its South America (Chile) Region to select customers, backed by more than $4 billion in investment and aimed at in-country data residency for regulated industries and Southern Cone users.
Amazon Web Services announced that its South America (Chile) Region is operational in early access for a select group of customers. It is AWS's first region in Chile and its third in Latin America, after São Paulo and Mexico (Central). General availability is expected by the end of 2026.
Amazon plans to invest more than $4 billion in Chile to support the region. The company estimates the investment will add more than $7.5 billion to Chile's GDP and support an average of 4,100 full-time equivalent jobs a year. Like other AWS regions, it will have at least three Availability Zones. It joins a global network of 39 regions.
At launch, the region offers core compute, storage, networking and database services. AWS says Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker AI will arrive within the first year, so the AI services will not be available locally on day one.
AWS ties the region to compliance. Chile's financial regulator has requirements for banks running critical workloads in the cloud, and a new data protection law adds data residency obligations. The company also says the region will cut latency for users in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru. Early customers include BancoEstado, BTG, Cencosud, Consorcio, Itaú and Ripley.
Chilean President José Antonio Kast Rist welcomed the launch, saying Chile "enters the big leagues." AWS says it has trained more than 200,000 people in Chile on cloud skills since 2017. It is now targeting 300,000 learners by 2028 through free AI and cloud training.