Amazon’s Biggest Campus In The World Opens In India

Amazon opened its biggest campus in the world on Wednesday (Aug 21) in Hyderabad, India, according to a report by Reuters.

The move illustrates Amazon’s aggressive push to expand in the country, despite stiff competition from companies like Walmart, and stringent regulations in the country regarding foreign eCommerce sites.

Amazon was going to build a huge new headquarters in New York, but eventually decided against it, due to local opposition and despite tax breaks. The company’s next headquarters is being built in Arlington, Virginia.

The newest campus is on 9.5 acres and cost “hundreds of millions of dollars,” Amazon said. It has 1.8 million square feet of office space and was built on 3 million square feet of construction area. The campus building has more than 2.5 times the steel of the Eiffel Tower when measured by weight, according to the Times of India.

It will be able to accommodate more than 15,000 workers. The company has about 62,000 employees in the country, and about one third of them are in Hyderabad. 

“The investment to create an office of this size indicates that we are going to continue to grow,” Amazon India Country Manager Amit Agarwal said.

John Schoettler, Amazon vice president of global real estate and facilities, said the campus would house employees of all divisions of the company, including web services.

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos earmarked more than $5 billion for the company’s India expansion, as the country is looked at as Amazon’s last bastion for expansion. Because of the competition in the region, Amazon has reportedly been considering partnering up with physical stores.

The rules regarding foreign eCommerce investments in the country went into effect in January, stifling both Amazon and Walmart’s plans for expansion. 

Amazon, for its part, started working in India in 2004, but retail endeavors began in earnest in 2013. Amazon wants to add restaurant delivery in the country, and it’s already started offering grocery delivery and video streaming through its Prime subscription offerings.