Amazon does not coordinate timing with competitors: India head Samir Kumar on $35 billion investment after Microsoft’s $17.5 billion commitment

According to Amazon, the company had digitised 10 million small businesses, enabled $20 billion in cumulative exports, and supported 2.8 million direct and indirect seasonal jobs in 2024 alone.

Amazon said the timing of its newly announced $35 billion investment for India through 2030 follows its internal planning and is not linked to the investment decisions of rival companies, Samir Kumar, Country Head at Amazon India, told Moneycontrol.

The comment came a day after Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment commitment for India, and on the same day that Amazon unveiled its fresh multi-billion-dollar capital deployment plan for the country, putting the spotlight on the timing of large global tech investments into India.

“I won’t comment on what other companies are doing. We have been working on our own plans for a long period of time… We don’t coordinate our timing with competitors,” Kumar said.

Amazon on December 10 said it will invest an additional $35 billion in India by 2030, over and above the $40 billion it has already deployed in the country between 2010 and 2024. The next phase of capital deployment will focus on scaling its AI capabilities, exports out of India, and job creation.

According to Amazon, the company had digitised 10 million small businesses, enabled $20 billion in cumulative exports, and supported 2.8 million direct and indirect seasonal jobs in 2024 alone. By 2030, it expects to support 3.8 million new jobs, both direct and indirect.

Asked whether the scale of the fresh investment signalled that Amazon may still be under-scaled in India relative to competitors, Kumar declined to benchmark the company against rivals.

“I’m not going to comment on that. What we are doing is for our own customers and for our own business. The decisions that we make are ours, and so we believe that India is a very large opportunity and continues to be one. We have already invested $40 billion, and this is another $35 billion over the next five years,” he said.

Kumar reiterated that India remains central to Amazon’s long-term global ambitions, pointing to the country’s economic trajectory and talent base as key drivers of confidence.

“In our announcement, we also said that Jeff (Bezos) said the 21st century is India’s century, and we believe in that. Our leadership believes that—in terms of people, in terms of talent, in terms of GDP. We are going to be the third-largest economy. If you look at Amazon, we want to be a global company, and India is a big part of that global story,” he said.

According to the company, the upcoming investment cycle will also focus on strengthening fulfilment and delivery infrastructure, enabling more small businesses to come online, and expanding AI-led tools across commerce and operations, even as competition across India’s ecommerce and quick-commerce market continues to intensify.