AWS to double data center capacity in Israel

With the end of the war Amazon has expressed interest in continuing its expansion in Israel. Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the winners of the Israeli government’s Nimbus cloud tender, has signed a letter of intent to lease a 42-dunam (10.5 acre) lot from Rotshtein Real Estate, near Tnuvot east of Netanya in the Sharon region, to build data centers for cloud and AI processing.

On the land could build a 60,000 square meter data center with an energy capacity of 35-40 megawatts, an amount of activity equivalent to its entire processing power in Israel as of today.

In other words, if AWS decides to implement the agreement, it could double its activity in Israel, probably by 2030. Rotshtein reported last week on a letter of intent agreement with a tenant, but did not reveal the identity of the customer.

According to the LOI, AWS will pay the landowners – the Rotshtein Real Estate Company, which holds most of the rights to the land, along with the Yehuda Levy Group and Moshav Tnuvot – NIS 15 million per year for five years, until it decides how to proceed. During this period, AWS may abandon the land and pay an exit penalty of up to NIS 25 million or build the data center for AI and cloud processing, as part of its commitment to serve government ministries, public authorities and support units, while paying rent for at least 24 years and 11 months.

As far as is known, Amazon has not yet committed to building the data center and has not placed any orders for equipment or a power line, but the choice of the area in Tnuvot is being made as part of the expansion of its operations there. Two years ago, AWS inaugurated a data center on nearby land to operate its cloud services, with a capacity of 12 megawatts. A data center with a capacity of 30-40 megawatts, may require AWS to invest $600- and $800 million on the site, assuming it builds at least two floors.

Built three data centers

Rotshtein had previously planned to build a logistics center on the site and even published a plan for a 60,000 square meter facility although it now seems that the agreement with AWS means it is abandoning those plans. Rothstein acquired 60% of the lot in 2020 for NIS 116 million.

Two years ago, AWS completed construction of three data centers in Israel as part of its commitments to the state in the Nimbus government cloud tender. These were large data centers for their time, all built using a special specification commissioned by the company and executed by Azrieli and its former subsidiary Compass, which has since exited the field in Israel. The data centers were built for cloud processing and were designed before the age of AI, to allow government ministries and large companies to store data in Israel, instead of in centers in Europe, which could put the data at risk.

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Freezing expansion moves

“Globes” revealed that during the war, AWS halted efforts to locate land to expand its operations, while the lease signed last week demonstrates that it intends to expand its operations. In addition estimates are that there is still free space for a lot of activity in the company three existing data centers, so AWS is not under pressure to expand in Israel.

Amazon is the world’s largest cloud and AI services company, and accordingly, it invests the highest amount among tech giants in capital equipment (capex) every year. Last month, Amazon raised its capex spending forecast for 2025 from $118 billion to $125 billion, a huge sum that will be invested mostly in new data centers for AI processing and furnishing them with servers based on Nvidia graphics processors.

No response has been forthcoming from Amazon and Rotshtein.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 13, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.