he Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) has recently approved investments worth 90.9 billion baht ($2.7 billion) for the development of data centers and cloud services. The announcement was made last Monday and serves as further evidence of the country’s ambition to strengthen its technology sector.
This project involves three major companies: China-based Beijing Haoyang Cloud & Data Technology, Singapore-based Empyrion Digital, and Thailand’s local player, GSA Data Center 02. Together, they will develop data centers with a combined IT capacity of 350 megawatts (MW).
Project Details
- Beijing Haoyang Cloud & Data Technology
This Chinese company is making the largest investment, committing 72.7 billion baht (approximately $2.16 billion) to build a 300 MW data center at WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 4 in Rayong Province. The facility will be the company’s first data center outside China and the largest in Southeast Asia. - Empyrion Digital
Headquartered in Singapore, Empyrion will invest 4.72 billion baht ($140.5 million) to develop a 12 MW data center in Bangkok. The facility, named TH1 and located in Bang Na, will cover an area of 9,960 square meters (107,210 square feet). Designed specifically to support AI and cloud workloads, it is scheduled to commence operations in Q1 2027. - GSA Data Center 02 (Thailand)
This local company is investing 13.5 billion baht ($401.9 million) to build a 35 MW data center in Chonburi Province. The move reflects Thailand’s commitment to advancing its technology sector independently.
Thailand Accelerates Digital Infrastructure Development
The surge in AI technology adoption is driving the rapid development of digital infrastructure across Southeast Asia, with data centers serving as the backbone for information storage and processing. In a bid to catch up with Malaysia—the region’s leading data center market—Thailand continues to attract large-scale investments.
For comparison, last year Malaysia secured a $6.5 billion commitment from Oracle for cloud service expansion, while NTT Data’s 290 MW data center project in Johor was previously the largest individual project in the region before Beijing Haoyang’s investment in Thailand. Now, with a series of globally scaled projects, Thailand is striving to strengthen its position as Southeast Asia’s emerging technology hub.
Strong Inflow of Foreign Investment
Many global companies use Singapore as their gateway for investments in Southeast Asia. The city-state even overtook China as the top source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Thailand last year. Major corporations such as TikTok, AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Google, and Microsoft have all announced ambitious plans in the country.
- TikTok, owned by ByteDance, has committed to investing $8.8 billion over the next five years for data center development in Thailand. In January, the company also announced a 126.8 billion baht ($3.7 billion) data hosting service project.
- AWS and Alibaba Cloud have launched new cloud regions in Thailand, with Alibaba opening its second data center this past February.
- Google, after announcing plans for a cloud region in August 2022, is set to invest $1 billion in cloud infrastructure and data centers in the country.
- Microsoft is also keeping pace, with plans to establish its first regional data center in Thailand in the near future.
Latest Wave of Investments
In November 2024, the Thailand Board of Investment approved nearly $1.8 billion in additional funding for data center projects. This includes facilities for Google as well as projects led by DigitalLand Services, a subsidiary of GDS. This move further solidifies Thailand’s position as a strategic destination for global technology companies.
Thailand in the Eyes of Global Investors
The strong commitments from major global tech giants highlight that Thailand is not only a promising market but also an increasingly important technology hub in Southeast Asia. While the country currently lags behind Malaysia in terms of data center capacity, Thailand is making significant efforts to catch up by attracting large-scale investments and building more modern digital infrastructure.
This success is also supported by the government’s pro-investment policies, such as tax incentives and streamlined regulations facilitated by the BOI. With a combination of foreign and local investments, as well as a clear ambition to become a key player in the global digital ecosystem, Thailand is now on the right track to compete with neighboring countries in the technology and data center industries.
