Thailand strengthens digital hub status with $3.1B data center investments

　　Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) has approved four new data center projects, totaling 100 billion Thai baht (approximately US$3.1 billion), as the country strives to become a major digital infrastructure hub in Southeast Asia and catch up with regional leaders Singapore and Malaysia.

　　In a statement released Monday, the BOI announced that two of these investments are hyperscale data centers designed to support AI workloads.

　　NextGen Data Center and Cloud Services, a subsidiary of the Dubai-based major data center service provider DAMAC Digital, will build the first facility. The 84MW hyperscale data center is valued at THB26.7 billion ($826.42 million) and will be located in the Navanakorn Industrial Estate in Pathum Thani Province. A local investor, Zenith Data Center and Cloud Services, will establish a 200MW hyperscale data center in the same location at a cost of THB54.9 billion ($1.7 billion).

　　The other two investors are Telehouse (Thailand) and Vistas Technology, which will build their respective facility in the Huai Khwang District of Bangkok and in Amata City Chonburi Industrial Estate in Chonburi Province.

　　Telehouse, a subsidiary of the Japanese company KDDI Corporation, has committed THB7.55 billion ($233.64 million) to build a 12MW data center next to its existing data center in Bangkok. Vistas Technology, a ZDATA Technologies subsidiary based in China, has earmarked THB9.9 billion ($306.39 million) for its 80MW data center. This is the second data center project approved by the BOI for Vistas Technology.

　　"The kingdom is actively positioning itself as a key Southeast Asian hub for hyperscale data centers. These approvals demonstrate our commitment to facilitating world-class digital infrastructure investment," said BOI Chairman Narit Therdsteerasukdi.

　　Reviving stalled projects

　　Meanwhile, the BOI granted six licenses to kickstart stalled data center projects worth $9.2 billion. These licenses are intended to reduce delays related to power availability, access to industrial land and the issuance of visas and work permits.

　　"This will strengthen investor confidence in Thailand's investment framework and contribute to increased employment and broader economic development," Therdsteerasukdi said.

　　Since 2024, data center investments in Thailand have been gaining momentum as major global tech companies like AWS, Google, Microsoft and ByteDance have made significant commitments to the country's digital infrastructure.

　　For the first half of 2025 alone, BOI figures showed that the data center sector brought in a total investment of THB521.2 billion ($16.13 billion) from 28 projects.

　　The BOI's approval of these investments is part of a broader strategy to establish Thailand as a digital infrastructure hub in Southeast Asia. Authorities hope the strategy will allow Thailand to compete with neighboring countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, which have been proactively seeking investments in hyperscale data centers.

　　The new data center projects in Thailand are expected to meet domestic and broader ASEAN regional demands for data storage and cloud services. Upon completion, these projects should bolster the country's cloud computing and AI capabilities and generate new job opportunities.