Google to spend $1 billion in Thailand in Southeast Asia AI push

Alphabet’s Google plans to invest $1 billion to build data centers in Thailand, joining global tech companies in adding cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Southeast Asia.

The company will add facilities in Bangkok and Chonburi, a province southeast of the capital. The outlay could help add $4 billion to Thailand’s economy by 2029 and support 14,000 jobs annually over the next five years, Google said Monday, citing a Deloitte study.

The investment was unveiled by Google and Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand’s recently appointed prime minister, underscoring the push by Southeast Asia’s governments to attract foreign tech firms. Long seen as a tech hinterland, the region of about 675 million people is fast emerging as a growth opportunity for Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon, which are spending billions of dollars to ramp up AI data centers from Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore and Indonesia.