Territory as strategy: the spatio-temporal design of big-tech cloud computing infrastructure

This paper develops a critical account of how contemporary forms of territorial authority are being strategically reworked through the spatio-temporal design and deployment of Big-Tech cloud computing infrastructure. Using the case of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and drawing on archival analysis and interviews with former AWS employees, it traces how AWS developed and coordinated a portfolio of spatial infrastructural products, including sovereign regions, availability zones, local and wavelength zones, and outposts, to operate across multiple jurisdictions. The paper shows that AWS assembles its infrastructural forms into a coherent spatio-temporal strategy that allows it to manage jurisdictional reach, regulatory exposure, and geopolitical risk across its global footprint. In doing so, the paper argues that territory is increasingly performed as an adjustable parameter of infrastructural governance rather than a fixed jurisdictional container. Engaging with scholarhsip across poiltlical geogrpahy and sicence and technology studies, the paper contributes to debates on Big-Tech power, digital sovereignty, and the governance of global digital infrastructures.