Amazon, Intel increase investments in Costa Rica

US giants Amazon and Intel are increasing their investments in Costa Rica, doubling down on the industry’s efforts to use the Central American nation as a hub for talent and nearshore services.

Amazon, which launched customer support services in Costa Rica 13 years ago, announced plans to hire another 2,000 face-to-face and remote staff.

The company said that its expanded staff will improve customer service provided to global customers in English, Portuguese and Spanish. 

"The customer service operation in Costa Rica opened in 2008 with 75 employees, and now we have more than 15,000 specialized employees," Alejandro Filloy, Amazon’s director of customer service for Latin America, said in a statement.

The face-to-face positions are for Amazon’s Costa Rican call centers in Heredia and Calle Blancos, while the virtual positions will be scattered throughout the country.

The new positions include customer service agents, multi-level team managers and operations managers. 

The investment figures for the hires were not stated.

In February, Amazon’s cloud arm AWS launched operations in Costa Rica, including an office and support services based in Heredia. 

INTEL

Meanwhile, Intel said it will nearly double its previously announced investment plan for Costa Rica to US$600mn.

In December, the company announced plans to invest US$350mn in the country over three years to start chipset assembly and test operations. 

However, Intel has now said its manufacturing site will be more than twice the size previously reported, at 26,000m2, compared with the 11,000mn originally planned. The company said works are advanced and it plans to inaugurate the plant in the coming months. 

The announcement comes amid high demand for chipsets around the world, as different industries grapple with supply limitations.

Intel is also increasing investments in new equipment and technology for its local R&D center by US$40mn.

The company, which arrived in Costa Rica in 1998, also said it aims to triple the number of new jobs created over the coming months.

In total, since 2020 the firm has hired 750 people in Costa Rica for its manufacturing area, research and development center and a global services center.

Intel currently employs 2,700 people in the country.

The drivers for the increased investments include the company’s existing infrastructure, synergies with operations already in place, the human talent factor, a favorable tax regime in Costa Rica, and the country's free trade zones and legal certainty, Timothy Scott Hall, Intel Costa Rica government affairs manager, said in a statement shared by the Costa Rican presidency.

Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado said that the announcement sends an "extraordinary" signal of confidence in the country to meet the demands of global markets. 

"This is a long-term relationship, based on the high quality of our human talent and on an investment climate that provides the necessary conditions to carry out complex processes, thus promoting reinvestment and growth of companies,” Alvarado said.