The Technology Year in Stories: April 2024

December 24, 2024

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Tech giants Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle have recently announced investments in Japan

We look at the articles that made the news in technology in 2024. Today, it is April's turn, featuring Microsoft, AWS, Oracle and Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy

Microsoft, AWS & Oracle: Why Big Tech is Investing in Japan

Despite its reputation as one of the world’s most technologically advanced nations and its position as Asia’s second-largest economy, Japan has been considered comparatively slow when it comes to the adoption of digital technologies.

According to a 2023 report by the International Institute for Management Development, Japan ranked 32nd of 64 economies surveyed when it came to adopting digital technologies, while the country currently faces a drastic shortage of digital workers.

According to the Japan Times, last year the country was estimated to have one million digital workers; short of the projected 2.3 million digital workers Japan will need in 2026.

To combat this, in recent months several tech giants have announced sizable investments in Japan, aimed at boosting cloud and AI infrastructure.

Here, Technology Magazine highlights some of these recent developments and what they mean for the tech landscape in Japan looking forward.

AWS boosts cloud infrastructure in Japan and tackles digital skills gap

In January 2024 AWS said it was to invest ¥2.26tn (US$15.24bn) in Japan by 2027 to expand cloud computing infrastructure in the country.

In addition to expanding its facilities in Tokyo and Osaka, AWS said it planned to help Japan unlock its cloud potential by addressing the digital skills gap through AWS education programmes, training and certification.

AWS-commissioned research by AlphaBeta shows that cloud and cybersecurity skills will be the top two most sought-after digital skills by Japanese employers by 2025.

AWS has trained over 400,000 individuals in Japan with cloud skills since 2017, providing them with in-demand cloud skills and best practices to help learners and organisations innovate in the cloud.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy: Future of Gen AI to be Built on AWS

As the Gen AI race has continued, tech giants Microsoft and Google have been widely seen as leading the pack – making a series of announcements and well-publicised investments in the technology.

Amazon, meanwhile, has taken a more low-key approach.

The company announced a US$4bn investment in AI start-up Anthropic last year and also revealed Amazon Q, a Gen AI-powered assistant empowering businesses to unlock the potential of AI for every employee.

But unlike Microsoft (Copilot), Google (Gemini) and Meta (Llama), Amazon has not announced a public-facing Gen AI chatbot, leading some to believe the company is falling behind.

This, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, is not the case.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy (image credit: Amazon)

By providing developers and companies with the tools and services they need to build, customise and deploy powerful Gen AI applications, Amazon is positioning itself as a key player in shaping the future of this transformative technology, claiming in his annual letter to stockholders that much of this “world-changing AI” will be built on top of AWS.

“Gen AI may be the largest technology transformation since the cloud (which itself is still in the early stages) and perhaps since the Internet,” he says.

“Unlike the mass modernisation of on-premises infrastructure to the cloud, where there’s work required to migrate, this Gen AI revolution will be built from the start on top of the cloud. The amount of societal and business benefits from the solutions that will be possible will astound us all.”