BERLIN, June 19 (Reuters) - Amazon ( AMZN ) will invest

10 billion euros ($10.75 billion) as demand for its cloud

services and retail goods in Europe's biggest economy keeps

growing, the US technology and retail company said on Wednesday.

The greater part of the sum, 8.8 billion euros, will be

spent by 2026 to expand the cloud infrastructure of its

computing unit Amazon Web Service (AWS), as it sees rising

potential in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven technologies in

Europe.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised the investment that

would create more than 4,000 jobs this year by saying it

underlines the country's attractiveness for investors.

Berlin is dealing with an economic downturn triggered by

high energy costs and interest rates, as well as

under-investment due in part to red tape.

The announcement brings the total amount of Amazon's ( AMZN ) planned

investments in Germany to 17.8 billion euros.

AWS was considering multi-billion investments in the

expansion of its data centres in Italy, Reuters reported in May.

($1 = 0.9307 euros)