Amazon Web Services (AWS) reportedly lost NZ$45 million (US$26.5m) as a result of dropping its planned data center developments in New Zealand.

As reported by RNZ and citing recently filed accounts, Amazon Data Services New Zealand Ltd - AWS' New Zealand data center arm - the impairment was booked in 2025 after it decided "not to continue with the planned development of the site."

The land holdings AWS had been set to develop were reduced to a recoverable value of NZ$62.7m (US$36.84m). As a result of the impairment, Amazon Data Services New Zealand reported a pre-tax loss of NZ$36 million (US$21.21m) for the year, after being profitable the year prior.

AWS previously was planning to invest around NZ$7.5 billion (US$5.3bn) in cloud operations and infrastructure in New Zealand. The company first announced plans for a cloud region in the country in 2021, at the time aiming to launch in 2024, and was self-building the data centers.

However, in March 2024, work on the first of three planned data centers was quietly put on hold. At the time, the company declined to share details about its construction plans or the exact location of the region.

The company was previously targeting a greenfield development in Westgate, Auckland.

The company did maintain, however, that it remained "committed to launching an AWS Region in New Zealand to support growing demand from customers. Our NZ$7.5 billion investment in world-leading cloud infrastructure will democratize access to technologies such as AI and act as a catalyst to accelerate innovation, drive productivity, fuel economic growth, and level the playing field for New Zealand organizations."

Despite the building not going ahead, AWS launched a cloud region in New Zealand in September 2025 with three availability zones. RNZ reports that AWS has some total assets worth more than NZ$650 million (US$383.14m) in the country. AWS has, instead, invested in leasing space from other providers and deploying hardware into those third-party data centers.

Most of New Zealand's data centers are located in the Auckland region. Operators include Data Vault, Datacom, Datacentre220, and CDC Data Centres.

This week, OVHcloud launched a Local Zone region in Auckland, hosted in the Datacentre220 facility.