(Bloomberg) — Thailand’s data center capacity is expected to triple in the next three years as investments of about $6.5 billion pour into the sector to meet surging demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
The nation’s capacity is expected to rise to about 1 gigawatts in 2027 from 350 megawatts in 2024, said Supparat Singhara Na Ayutthaya, vice chairman of the Thai Data Center Association. A data center requires an investment of about $10 million for each megawatt, he said.
“Thailand has drawn tremendous interest for new data center investments with its steady power generation and water supply,” Supparat said in an interview this week.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. are among global tech giants spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure in Thailand and across Southeast Asia.
“There will be many more global technology companies further diversifying their data center facilities to Thailand,” Supparat said.
The expansion of Thailand’s data center sector comes as the nation, a longtime manufacturing powerhouse for automobiles and electronics, accelerates efforts to boost its high-tech industries. The government wants Thailand to catch up to countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, regional leaders in data center and cloud computing services.
In the first half of the year, Thailand’s Board of Investments approved investment applications worth 322 billion baht ($9.9 billion) for 36 tech projects, most of which were data centers, according to its website.
The data center association is awaiting clarity about the US plan to restrict shipments of AI chips and what effect that could have on the nation’s data centers, Supparat said.
