Singapore’s Empyrion Developing 12MW Bangkok Data Centre as First Thai Project

Empyrion Digital has entered a fifth Asian market with the development of an edge co-location data centre in Bangkok, marking the Singapore-based firm’s maiden investment in Thailand.

The Bangkok facility, dubbed TH1, spans more than 9,960 square metres (107,209 square feet) and will have a minimum IT capacity of 12 megawatts, Empyrion said Wednesday in a release.

Upon completion by 2027, TH1 will be optimised to meet AI and cloud computing requirements using efficient cooling technologies, said the operator backed infrastructure fund manager Seraya Partners. Thailand’s data centre market is expected to reach $1.19 billion in size by 2029, according to research by Arizton Advisory & Intelligence.

“This investment further reflects our nimble approach in capturing growth from new markets in tandem with our customers’ evolving requirements,” said Empyrion Digital CEO Mark Fong. “We will continue to seek opportunities in Southeast Asia in lock step with our customers.”

Pipeline Grows

Located in the emerging connectivity hub of Bang Na on Bangkok’s eastern fringe, TH1 has “in-principle” power available and aims for low ratios of power and water usage effectiveness.

The project represents Empyrion’s first major investment in Southeast Asia since its 2021 founding in Singapore and follows news earlier this month of the firm’s first Taiwan data centre. The planned 7MW facility in Taipei’s technology-led Neihu business district seeks to meet the needs of cloud and AI computing that legacy assets are struggling to accommodate.

In September, Empyrion announced its entry into Japan with the planned development of a 25MW carrier-neutral data centre in central Tokyo. The JP1 facility is a partnership with an unnamed local investor described as one of Japan’s largest diversified financial services groups.

Empyrion currently operates a 7.7MW data centre in Singapore and is building a 29.4MW facility in Seoul. The company is also exploring development of carrier-neutral facilities in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Kingdom a Comer

Thailand’s data centre market is seeing steady growth after the Board of Investment eased rules on foreign ownership and introduced incentives to promote development of digital infrastructure in the kingdom, Cushman & Wakefield said in a recent report.

Equinix is the latest player to enter the market, announcing in October a plan to invest $500 million in Thailand’s digital infrastructure over the next decade. The US giant recently acquired a site in Bangkok for development of two data centres, giving it a presence in a fifth Southeast Asian country after establishing a foothold in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Equinix’s push followed Google’s September announcement that the tech giant would spend $1 billion to expand its digital infrastructure into Thailand, including plans for a data centre in the eastern industrial heartland and a public cloud location in Bangkok.

That statement came after rival Microsoft’s May declaration of “significant commitments” to new cloud and AI infrastructure in the kingdom.

Bloomberg reported in October that Dubai-based Edgnex would invest $1 billion in three or four data centre projects in Thailand through a joint venture with local operator Proen Corp.