Google Unveils $1B Investment Plan for Thailand Data Centre, Public Cloud Location

Google on Monday announced a $1 billion investment to expand its digital infrastructure into Thailand, including plans for a data centre in the country’s eastern industrial heartland and a public cloud location in Bangkok.

Google’s first Thai data centre will take shape at an industrial estate of warehouse builder WHA in the Eastern Economic Corridor of Chonburi province, the tech giant said in a release. The capital city will host a Google Cloud “region”, defined as a collection of computing and storage resources with high-performance network connections.

No technical specifications were disclosed, but Google said the investment could potentially add $4 billion to Thailand’s GDP by 2029 and support an average of 14,000 jobs annually from 2025 through 2029, according to a study by Deloitte.

“Google’s infrastructure investments in Thailand represent a major milestone in our commitment to expand opportunities for Thais in the digital age,” said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google and parent group Alphabet. “These investments will empower Thai businesses, innovators, and communities to harness the power of cloud and AI technology.”

Agreement Bears Fruit

Porat unveiled the plan at Government House in Bangkok alongside Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who said the investment would build on a collaboration agreement between Google and Thailand announced last November by her predecessor in the office, Srettha Thavisin.

“Clearly, we are gathered here today because his hard work has paid off,” Paetongtarn said. “And it is my intention to carry this work forward.”

The agreement includes commitments to establish digital infrastructure, support responsible AI adoption, advance cloud-first policies and make digital skills more accessible in Thailand.

Google data centres store data and processing requests for the company’s digital services, including Search, Maps, YouTube and Workspace. A region provides Google Cloud services for small, medium-sized and large enterprises, public sector entities and other organisations.

The investment reveal comes three months after Google announced a tie-up with Gulf Edge, a subsidiary of Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development, on a sovereign cloud partnership in the Southeast Asian nation. Meant to meet data residency, security and privacy requirements, the sovereign cloud runs entirely within a customer’s chosen environment, requiring no connectivity to a Google Cloud region or the public internet, the company said.

Southeast Asian Wave

Google has operational data centres in 11 countries, including four facilities in Singapore and one each in Japan and Taiwan.

In May, the Silicon Valley-based company said it would invest $2 billion in digital infrastructure in Malaysia, including its first data centre in Thailand’s southern neighbour.

That statement followed closely on rival Microsoft’s announcements of $2.2 billion in investment to advance new cloud and AI infrastructure in Malaysia and “significant commitments” to similar initiatives in Thailand.