Amazon.com Inc. today inaugurated a sprawling corporate hub in the Indian city of Hyderabad that’s expected to house some 15,000 employees.

The towering complex (pictured) is the company’s biggest outpost globally, overtaking even the skyscrapers that make up its Seattle headquarters. The hub will expand Amazon’s already sizable presence in India, where it employs about 62,000 staffers across dozens of locations. 

Amazon representatives told Reuters that the project cost “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the online retail and technology giant. The complex provides 1.8 million square feet of office space over more than 9.5 acres. The 15,000 employees who will be based out of the center will work on the company’s Amazon Web Services cloud platform, Alexa, Kindle and other key products.

“Over these last 15 years we have invested significantly in India across 30 office spaces,” Amazon Senior Vice President Amit Agarwal, the country manager for India, said in a statement. “This new Amazon campus building is a tangible commitment to that long-term thinking and our plans for India.”

India is not only a major talent hub for the company but also an increasingly important market. Amazon is investing billions of dollars into the country to capture the growing local demand for cloud services and e-commerce.

The company is competing with Walmart Inc., which last year shelled out a hefty $16 billion to acquire a majority stake in India’s largest e-commerce marketplace. Amazon, for its part, is reportedly negotiating to buy a stake in Indian brick-and-mortar retailer Future Retail Ltd. It’s also said to be preparing to launch a food delivery service in collaboration with local partners. 

Amazon is expanding at multiple locations at once as part of its ambitious cross-market growth roadmap. The company is currently setting up a campus in Arlington, Virginia, that will employee 25,000 workers when construction is complete, while its Portland development center is adding 400 more staff to boost engineering efforts. 

Photo: Amazon