Microsoft plans $1 billion investment in Thailand: government

Microsoft announced Tuesday it plans to invest more than $1 billion in cloud and AI data centre infrastructure and operations in Thailand over the next two years.

As demand for artificial intelligence heats up, tech giants are racing to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, attracted by a growing plugged-in user base.

New data centres -- warehouse-like facilities that store online files and power AI tools from chatbots to image generators -- are springing up worldwide, and the sector is growing particularly fast in Asia.


"Our ambition is for Thailand to grow as a regional driving force in Asia's digital and AI economy," Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a statement after meeting with Microsoft president Brad Smith.

He called the Microsoft announcement a "clear expression of confidence in Thailand's future".

Google launched a new "cloud region" in Bangkok in January, saying its data centres would contribute more than $40 billion in economic value to Thailand over five years.

Super-connected Singapore was long Southeast Asia's data centre hotspot, but the city state halted developments between 2019 and 2022 over energy, water and land use worries.

That, along with an explosion of AI interest after ChatGPT's debut, brought a surge of data centres to Malaysia, and increasingly Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.