Amazon is set to invest $26bn (£20.4bn) in India by the end of the decade as it competes with Walmart.

The announcement was made after chief executive Andy Jassy met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the USA.

The ecommerce giant is looking to add $6.5bn (£5.1bn) in new investments that will be largely used to boost its ecommerce business where it competes with Walmart’s Indian online shopping site Flipkart.

The announcement comes a month after Amazon Web Services said it would invest $12.9bn (£10.3bn) in India by the end of 2030.

Other companies such as US semiconductor toolmaker Applied Materials and memory chip firm Micron Technology also made commitments during Modi’s visit.

In an Amazon blog post, the business said Modi and Jassy spoke about “supporting Indian start-ups, creating jobs, enabling exports, digitisation and empowering individuals and small businesses to compete globally”.

Amazon also pledged to digitise 10 million small businesses in the country, enable $20bn (£15.7bn) in exports and plans to create 2 million jobs in India by 2025.

So far, Amazon India has digitised over 6.2 million small businesses, enabled over $7bn (£5.5bn) in exports and created over 1.3 million jobs, the company said.

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