Amazon is opening a new office in Manchester as it makes a big bet on research and development in the UK
- Amazon announced it's opening a new office in Manchester, UK.
- The new office, based in the Hanover Building, will accommodate at least 600 staff.
- Amazon is also expanding its research and development teams in Cambridge and Edinburgh.
Amazon has that it's opening up a new office in Manchester, and investing in 1,000 additional research and development jobs in the UK.
Amazon's new Manchester office will open in 2019 and will be based in the Hanover Building in the city's Northern Quarter. It will be big enough to eventually house 600 staff.
UK manager Doug Gurr said: "Manchester was at the heart of the industrial revolution and has a fantastic history of innovation."
"Our new office will be home to over 600 staff, many of whom will be focused on developing exciting new products and services used by Amazon customers around the world
"The city offers an incredibly talented workforce and a budding tech scene with some of the most exciting, fast-growing tech companies in the UK situated here."
Extra staff will also be added in Edinburgh and Cambridge, where specialists work on machine-learning, drones, and the AI assistant Alexa.
Amazon said it has invested more than £9.3 billion ($12.2 billion) in the UK since 2010 and is on course to have 27,500 staff on its books by the end of the year.
Liam Fox, the British secretary of state for International Trade, said: "Amazon's decision to create hundreds of highly-skilled jobs in Manchester, Edinburgh and Cambridge is an enormous vote of confidence in the UK and a signal to the world that the UK is very much open for business."