New Rules for Irish Data Centres
Amazon’s Irish Data Centre Business Experiences Substantial Revenue Increase
Amazon’s data centre sector, Amazon Data Services Ireland Ltd, witnessed a significant revenue increase of €1.17 billion, pushing its total revenue to €4.85 billion last year, despite a dip in pretax profits. Notably, even though its revenues rose by 32%, the company saw an 8% decrease in pretax profit, settling at €61.5 million.
Employing 1,753 people by the end of 2022, the company operates multiple data hub facilities. However, its operating profits fell by 47% from €62.3 million to €33.14 million due to a one-third increase in operating expenses, which totalled €4.82 billion last year. The directors attributed this primarily to a rise in data centre operational costs.
The surge in data centre costs corresponded with escalating energy prices in the initial three quarters of 2022. The profit recorded for the last year accounted for non-cash depreciation costs amounting to €1.02 billion. Employee count increased by 321, with total staff costs escalating by 35.5% to €187.67 million, including share-based payments worth €30.88 million.
The company received a financial boost of €2.7 billion from a linked entity, augmenting its capability to expand the data centre business. Amazon has submitted plans to Fingal Co Council for three additional data centre buildings on its 26-hectare Amazon Web Services (AWS) campus at Cruiserath Road in west Dublin. Between 2011 and 2020, AWS has invested €4.4 billion in Ireland, supporting 8,700 jobs.
After paying €25.4 million in corporation tax, Amazon Data Services Ltd posted post-tax profits of €36.09 million. The company had shareholder funds of €5.18 billion at the end of December, mainly comprising of ‘Other Reserve’ of €4.73 billion.
Its sister firm, Amazon Ireland Support Services Ltd, based in Cork, employed 2,275 people by December’s end. It distributed dividends totalling €602 million since December. The firm reported a pretax loss of €10.8 million as revenues increased by 17% to €261.92 million. The wage bill rose significantly from €96.26 million to €121.28 million as the average number of employees increased from 1,902 to 2,076.
The accounts, finalized in March and February, make no mention of the two rounds of global job cuts announced by Amazon recently.
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