Google will invest close to $1 billion in Thailand, creating a new data center and doubling the size of the company’s cloud infrastructure in one of the largest bids by the technology company to reinforce its presence in Southeast Asia. The investment will be put into meeting the rising demand for cloud services and fast-tracking AI technology development.
The newly elected Prime Minister of Thailand, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, has welcomed the investment as perfectly in line with the “Cloud First” policy of the country, focusing on the need for our digital transition and infrastructure improvement.
Both the new data center in Chonburi and the cloud region in Bangkok would serve all needs of both the public and private sectors. Google’s infrastructure would further power popular AI-powered services such as Google Search, Maps, and Workspace, for a much stronger digital ecosystem. If this is any indication, it stands to create 14,000 jobs annually from now until 2029 and bring an economic boost to Thailand by $4.1 billion by 2030, according to a Deloitte study.
Google has been operating in Thailand for more than 13 years, equipping more than 3.6 million students, developers, and small businesses with digital skills. More than the infrastructure itself, the expansion of its AI and cloud capabilities through this data center has been one of building innovation and upskilling the local workforce. Google focuses on AI, currently a developing trend for many companies and governments that want to use AI to foster economic growth and digital transformation.
It’s all part of a broader push by tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft, also announcing massive investments in the region’s cloud and AI infrastructure. This area, home to 675 million people, is rapidly emerging as a new locus of development for technology. This investment in Thailand has been viewed as a strategic move on the part of Google in its quest for leadership in AI and cloud services, where the latter has been making incursions into industries that range from healthcare to finance amid heated competition.
The Thai government has welcomed this investment, as it raises not only Thailand’s technology sector but its ambitions in digital sovereignty on the back of foreign companies’ expertise. Artificial Intelligence and cloud infrastructure are among those Thailand targets as it shapes the contours as a regional digital powerhouse. The investment also represents the increasing charm that Southeast Asia has gained among global technology companies as it parades a booming digital economy with one of the most tech-savvy peoples on Earth.
In all, the $1 billion investment in Thailand by Google has created a point of inflection in the history of the company and the region. This underlines the increasing importance of Southeast Asia as the hub for technological innovation, while placing Thailand in the limelight of the global Artificial Intelligence Race. Over the next few years, the country is set to gain economically and technologically with the expansion of digital infrastructure and cloud by Google.
