Amazon has announced one of its biggest India commitments yet, saying it aims to help create 3.8 million job opportunities in the country by 2030 even as it continues to cut roles at a global level. The company shared the plan at its Smbhav Summit in New Delhi, where it also outlined how deeply it intends to invest in India over the next few years.
“By 2030, the company plans to generate an additional 3.8 million direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs,” Amazon said in its latest blog post.
Amazon also confirmed that it will pump more than $35 billion, roughly Rs 3.14 lakh crore, into its India operations by 2030. This will be in addition to the nearly $40 billion it has already invested since entering the market in 2010. The announcement closely followed Microsoft’s pledge to invest Rs 1.5 lakh crore in India, adding to the sense that global tech companies see long-term potential here.
The company said the fresh investment will be centred around three big goals – AI-led digitisation, boosting Indian exports and expanding employment opportunities. Amazon described this as a continuation of its long-term partnership with India’s digital and manufacturing ecosystem. Over the years, it has built large fulfilment centres, transport networks, digital payment systems, data centres and cloud infrastructure, all of which have played a role in bringing more small businesses online.
An economic impact report by Keystone Strategy, released at the summit, said Amazon supported about 2.8 million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal jobs across industries in India in 2024. The company also said its initiatives have helped digitise more than 12 million small businesses and facilitated over $20 billion in cumulative ecommerce exports from India.
The big push now is to add another one million job opportunities by 2030. These jobs will emerge from Amazon’s expanding fulfilment and delivery networks as well as industries linked to packaging, manufacturing, transport and services. The company said these opportunities will arise as its ecosystem grows and more sellers and partners join the platform.
Amit Agarwal, senior vice president for emerging markets at Amazon, said the company sees its progress in India aligning with the country’s development goals. “We are humbled to have been a part of India’s digital transformation journey over the past 15 years,” he said, adding that Amazon wants to “democratize access to AI for millions of Indians” and quadruple its cumulative ecommerce exports to $80 billion by 2030.
Exports are a major part of that plan. Amazon Global Selling, which recently completed a decade in India, has already crossed $20 billion in enabled exports. To accelerate this further, Amazon introduced a new programme called “Accelerate Exports”, which will connect sellers with manufacturing partners and help factories sell globally. The company will conduct onboarding drives across more than 10 manufacturing hubs including Tirupur, Kanpur and Surat, and has tied up with the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India to scale the effort.
AI will also be central to Amazon’s India strategy. By 2030, it aims to bring AI tools to 15 million small businesses and offer AI learning and exposure to four million government school students through curriculum support, teacher training and technology visits.
Interestingly, all of this comes at a time when Amazon is reducing its global corporate workforce. In October this year, the company announced it would lay off about 14,000 employees as part of a wider restructuring. In a blog post, Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, said the company needs to become leaner as it moves investments toward generative AI and other long-term priorities.
