Thailand — The Board of Investment approved 36 data center projects worth $23 billion in 2025 alone, with Microsoft, AIS, and Global Infrastructure Partners among the major investors. A $3.1 billion tranche approved in November 2025 included new measures to fast-track stalled projects, reflecting government urgency to capture AI infrastructure demand.
Thailand's data center strategy leverages its central ASEAN geography, relatively cheap electricity, and established industrial zones in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). Unlike Malaysia's Johor, which benefits from Singapore spillover, Thailand targets a broader Southeast Asian customer base — serving Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam from a central location.
The challenge is power supply and cooling efficiency. Thailand's tropical climate increases cooling costs, driving innovation in liquid immersion cooling and heat recovery systems. If Thailand solves tropical-climate data center efficiency at scale, the resulting engineering knowledge becomes exportable to every equatorial country building AI infrastructure.