The briefings, from July 2022 and November 2021, showed the private sector's lobbying, and the government's enthusiastic response to the "several billion dollars" investment. DCI supports the government's focus on enabling New Zealand to become a thriving digital nation".Īll up, a dozen data centres were promised, hosting tens of thousands of servers each. In speech notes, officials told Clark that DCI's "credentials are backed by Brookfield, a global infrastructure investor with over $600b in assets. Last month, Clark was pictured turning a sod at the groundbreaking for construction of DCI's second centre, in Albany. "AWS posed several requests as part of its investment commitment," the officials advised Clark.Īnother of the seven, Canadian-owned DCI, asked Clark in mid-2021 for support, "starting with amplification of their announcement" that DCI would build two data centres worth more than $600 million. They had come "seeking your support and advocacy of their plans, and strategic dialogue on big issues of shared interest", the officials told Clark.Īmazon Web Services (AWS) was the largest of the investors - it had suggested it would inject almost $11 billion into the economy in coming years, through three new 'hyperscale' data centres. "All the providers have sought to meet with you as lead minister to share and seek your support for their plans," officials told Digital Economy and Communications Minister David Clark.
Read the document: Internal Affairs briefing to Digital Economy and Communications Minister David Clark, November 2021. Seven of them, including global giants Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, sought ministerial endorsement in recent months, briefings released under the Official Information Act show.
Major foreign tech companies with billions to spend on data centres have been strongly wooing the government. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was the largest of the investors - it had suggested it would inject almost $11 billion into the economy in coming years, through three new 'hyperscale' data centres.