Equinix expands into Thailand with $500M investment

       Equinix is expanding into Thailand with a $500 million investment spread over the next ten years to capture a significant share of the country's rapidly growing data center market.

　　The investment includes newly acquired land in the Bangna area of Bangkok valued at approximately $34 million, where the company plans to build two International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers that will provide more than 3,375 cabinets when fully built out.

　　With an area of more than 18,700 square meters, the newly acquired property is located on the main road connecting the airport and city center, providing easy access to Bangkok's existing interconnection ecosystem.

　　In a statement released Tuesday, Equinix said its entry into the Thai data center market is part of its strategic expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.

　　The company announced its planned entry into the Philippine market in July this year with the acquisition of three data centers from Total Information Management. It entered the Malaysian market in May this year with the launch of an IBX data center in Johor and Kuala Lumpur respectively, with plans to increase data center capacity in Cyberjaya.

　　Equinix also continues to invest in its existing markets in the region, such as the $124 million earmarked for a new purpose-built IBX data center in Hong Kong.

　　The company currently has 58 data centers located in 15 major metropolitan areas in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

　　A regional data center hub in Southeast Asia

　　Narit Therdsteerasukdi, secretary general of the Thailand Board of Investment, believes the country'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.

　　"The next decade will see accelerated shifts in supply chains and migration to the cloud, with manufacturing and digital economic production diversifying across Thailand and the rapidly growing CLMV sub-region. Thailand has emerged as a prime investment destination in this supply chain transformation, attracting substantial investments in prominent industrial clusters, particularly in cloud services, electronics and electric vehicle sectors," Therdsteerasukdi said in a statement.

　　According to a July 2024 report by Next Move Strategy Consulting, 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.