The economic impact of Project Kuiper’s launch partnerships in the EU

This report explores the economic impact of Amazon’s Project Kuiper in the EU27.

Project Kuiper, financed and operated by Amazon, aims to help bridge the global digital divide by providing broadband access to unserved and underserved communities. To achieve this, Amazon will deploy a constellation of over 3,000 satellites into low Earth orbit, and has secured more than 80 rocket launches globally to do so—the largest ever commercial procurement of launch vehicles.

Out of Amazon’s publicly announced investment in Project Kuiper, an estimated 26% will be directed to the EU space sector. Against this backdrop, Oxford Economics was commissioned by Amazon to estimate the contribution of Project Kuiper’s launch partnerships to the EU economy. The resulting economic footprint study quantifies the different channels through which such partnerships support employment, GDP, and tax revenues in the region.

Based on existing launch contracts and excluding any potential future launches, Project Kuiper’s spending in the EU will support a total contribution to EU GDP of €2.8 billion between 2022 and 2029 (in 2024 prices). It will also support an annual average of 3,270 jobs in the region over the same period—and 6,610 jobs at the peak of the expected economic contribution in 2025. Economic activity supported by the partnerships is expected to contribute in excess of €790 million to government treasuries in the EU between 2022 and 2029.

The report breaks these quantitative results down by country for the five countries where the impact is expected to be largest. For example, in France and Germany, an average of 1,600 and 1,020 jobs will be supported each year between 2022 and 2029 respectively.

In addition to the results of our economic impact modelling, the report also presents a set of case studies showcasing examples of businesses that have been positively impacted by this initiative either directly, as one of Project Kuiper’s launch partners, or indirectly in launch partners’ supply chains.