Thailand Greenlights $2.7B Data Center Investment as Google, Amazon and Microsoft Expand Presence

Key Takeaways

• Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft all plan to launch cloud regions in Thailand.
• Growing demand from hyperscalers is driving a data center building boom.
• Thailand’s Board of Investment recently approved investments worth 90.9 billion baht ($2.7 billion).

Thailand’s Board of Investment (BoI) has approved three data center projects with a total investment value of 90.9 billion baht ($2.7 billion).

The move comes as American cloud firms, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, are looking to grow their footprint in Thailand and the wider region.

International Investors Drive Thai Data Center Building Boom

Thailand’s newly approved data centers will be built and operated by domestic and international companies.

China’s Beijing Haoyang Cloud Data Technology Company will build the largest—a 300 MW site in Rayong Province that will cost 72.7 billion baht ($2.16 billion).

GSA Data Center 02, a joint venture between GULF and ST Dynamo, will invest 13.5 billion baht ($400 million) in a new 35 MW data center in Chonburi Province.

A third 12 MW facility will be built by Singapore’s Empyrion Digital in Bangkok for 4.72 billion baht ($140 million).

Thai Cloud Market Goes Hyperscale

The planned data centers, especially Beijing Haoyang’s, represent a significant leap in capacity for Thailand’s cloud sector.

At present, most data centers in the country top out at around 30 MW. But in recent months, the BoI has approved a string of hyperscale building projects.

These include a 32.8 billion baht ($980 million) investment from Alphabet subsidiary Quartz Computing to build a huge new facility in Chonburi.

Among the American cloud giants, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is on track to open the first dedicated cloud region in Thailand this year. Google and Microsoft aren’t far behind and have both staked out similar ambitions for the country.

Collectively, the three Big Tech firms plan to invest billions of dollars in building out their Thai infrastructures. For example, AWS plans to invest $5 billion in the country over the next 15 years.

Asian Firms Also Circling

American hyperscalers aren’t the only ones scrambling to secure a foothold in Thailand.

Chinese and Singaporean investors, including some of the region’s largest data center operators, are also driving the current building boom.

For example, the Thai subsidiary of China’s GDS has secured permission to build a 28 billion baht hyperscale data center .

With a growing presence in South Asia, GDS tenants include Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud.

Why Thailand?

Several factors make Thailand an increasingly attractive destination for hyperscale data center development.

Its central location in Southeast Asia enables low-latency access to emerging markets in Vietnam and Malaysia.

With multiple submarine cables landing on its coast, Thailand competes with Singapore in terms of digital connectivity. And as regional cloud demand grows, data center builders are looking for new opportunities beyond the established Singapore hub.

The Thai government has also actively encouraged digital infrastructure growth, with incentives from the BoI including tax breaks, land ownership rights, and import duty exemptions to encourage investment.