Full coverage: Amazon

The technology giant’s fastest-growing Irish subsidiary paid hundreds of R&D staff €50 million in Amazon shares last year. How much will they get this year?

Diego Piacentini led Amazon's international expansion for sixteen years, from a plucky internet upstart to the gargantuan force it is now. In town for Endeavor Ireland's first retreat, he sat down with The Currency to discuss transforming the retailer and his home country's digital footprint.

As it continues to grow its Irish data centre and e-commerce operations, the US multinational has revealed the potential it attaches to its fast-expanding “development centre”.

Already the dominating player in Ireland’s fast-growing data centre industry, the US digital giant has acquired another large property from a well-known agri-business family next to an electricity connection for its power-hungry business.

Exclusive figures compiled by Greenpeace estimate the digital giant’s power demand for its expanding data hosting business in Ireland. The numbers add up, and they show AWS has a long way to go to its full renewable commitment

Unlike other tech multinationals, the US online retail and cloud computing behemoth has not chosen Ireland as its European corporate beachhead. Yet the group has quietly been ramping up a multi-billion data centre presence around Dublin, and is now moving into the renewable energy market.

Insolvency figures are decreasing in retail in Ireland but this does not reflect the big picture for what’s going on within the industry. Bricks and mortar stores continue to battle the rise of online shopping and the uncertainty of Brexit.