Amazon’s New India Campus Is Its Largest
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Amazon.com on Aug. 21 opened its largest campus building globally in the south Indian city of Hyderabad as it prepares for a furious expansion and battle with nemesis Walmart Inc. in one of the world’s fastest-growing retail markets.
The Seattle-headquartered company is making an ambitious push in India, the last major retail frontier still primarily reliant on small-scale neighborhood and mom-and-pop stores. “E-commerce is so small in India relative to the total consumption, less than 3%,” said Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s country manager for India.
The largely untapped country is critical to the global domination plans of both Amazon and Walmart, the latter of which spent $16 billion last year to buy India’s biggest startup, retailer Flipkart Online Services. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has so far pledged $5.5 billion for its India operations.
Today we inaugurate our newest campus building in India! Located in Hyderabad’s #Gachibowli #financialdistrict, it is @amazon’s first owned building outside the US. #AmazonHYDNewCampus @amazonIN @PMOIndia @NITIAayog @investindia @TelanganaCMO @CimGOI @DIPPGOI @GoI_MeitY pic.twitter.com/kYNjw2bfMX — Amazon India News (@AmazonNews_IN) August 21, 2019
Built in Hyderabad over three years, the new campus is Amazon’s first owned building outside of the United States, spans 1.8 million square feet of office space, or about 50 times the footprint of the Taj Mahal’s mausoleum. It will accommodate 15,000 workers. “The largest buildings in Seattle house about 5,000 employees,” remarked John Schoettler, vice president of Amazon’s Global Real Estate and Facilities. He said the campus was Amazon’s largest in the world but has plenty more room to grow.
“This facility will build services globally,” Agarwal added, citing examples like AWS, Kindle, Alexa, Amazon.in and Amazon Home Services, which is “innovating on things like doorstep pick-up and electronics repair.”
At the same time as it’s inaugurating its new Indian hub, Amazon is investing on other fronts within the nation. It is in negotiations to buy a 10% stake in one of India’s largest brick and mortar retailers, Future Retail, people familiar with the matter have said. Local media have also reported that Amazon is eager to add food delivery to its Indian repertoire and is negotiating with multiple food companies to kick-start that line of business.
