Thailand approves $1.8B hyperscale data center projects in Chonburi

　　Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) on Friday approved two major data center projects in the country's Chonburi province valued at approximately 60.8 billion baht ($1.8 billion).

　　Alphabet subsidiary Quartz Computing will build a THB32.8 billion ($1 billion) data center in the province to meet growing demand for AI and cloud services in Southeast Asia. The investment was first announced in late September by Alphabet, Google's parent company, which also revealed plans to establish a cloud region in Bangkok. The data center, which will be Google's fifth in Asia, is expected to open in early 2027.

　　In a media statement, the BOI said it also gave the go-ahead for Digitalland Services (Thailand) to build a THB28 billion ($829.2 million) hyperscale data center in Chonburi. Digitalland Services is the local subsidiary of China-based GDS IDC Services, which operates data centers in China and Southeast Asia. The company plans to open its Thailand facility in 2026.

　　BOI Secretary General Narit Therdsteerasukdi said the new foreign investments in data centers "reinforces Thailand's status as a regional tech hub."

　　Data center and cloud projects on the rise

　　According to local news reports, the BOI has received approval applications from local and foreign companies for 47 projects related to data centers and cloud services with a total value of more than THB173 billion ($5.1 billion).

　　The foreign companies are mostly from the United States, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and India.

　　The BOI's approval of the two new hyperscale data center developments in Chonburi came just days after the government agency granted US-based Equinix permission to enter the Thai data center market with a $500 million investment over the next ten years.

　　The BOI believes that Thailand's cloud-first policy positions it well to capture future growth opportunities as a regional hub and digital economy leader for the Greater Mekong region. The Greater Mekong Region is made up of the neighboring countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Thailand's data center market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% over the next six years, with revenues increasing from $652 million in 2023 to over $1.5 billion in 2030, according to a July 2024 report by Next Move Strategy Consulting.