Google to build a new data centre in Thailand as part of $1 billion investment, amid intense cloud and AI arms race
Alphabet’s Google has confirmed a heavy investment in another Asian nation as it seeks to expanded its data centre footprint.
The tech giant confirmed in a Google Thailand blog post on Monday that it will invest $1 billion in Thailand to build a new data centre and accelerate AI growth.
It comes after it was reported in August 2024 that Google was considering building a large data centre in Vietnam, in what would be the first such investment by a large US tech giant in that Southeast Asian nation.
Thai data centre
In the blog post this week however, Google stated it would invest 36 billion Thai baht ($1 billion), into Thailand to build a new data centre, and it comes after cloud and AI rival Microsoft has also made similar heavy investments across Asia and other parts of the world.
Google’s $1 billion in Thailand is for the construction of its first data centre in that country, as well as an expansion of the country’s cloud infrastructure.
According to Google Translate version of the blog post by Jackie Wang (Google’s country boss), the new data centre will “help support the growing demand for Google Cloud and AI innovations, as well as popular Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps and Google Workspace”.
The $1 billion investment from Google into Thailand is “also about unlocking new opportunities for businesses, educators and all Thais,” Wang said in the post.
The firm said that its Thai data centre will be located in Chonburi – a province set on the country’s eastern Gulf of Thailand coast.
Why Thailand?
Southeast Asia nations such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan have traditionally attracted infrastructure investments from Western tech giants over the years.
Google for example opened its first Asian data centres in Singapore and Taiwan back in December 2013.
Then in 2015 Google announced plans to build a second larger data centre in Singapore.
Thailand is said to have the second largest digital economy in Southeast Asia.