The BOI welcomes the new Prime Minister's Office regulation that tightens controls on Data Center investments by introducing a four-dimensional investor screening. It emphasizes cost-effectiveness and avoiding competition for community water and electricity. Thai investors lead in investment volume, aiming to establish Thailand as a regional AI hub.
Mr. Narit Therdsteerasak, Secretary-General of the Board of Investment (BOI), stated that following Cabinet approval of the draft "Prime Minister's Office Regulation on the Data Center Business Policy Committee," a national committee will be established to propose policies, standards, and operational guidelines for agencies involved in approving, licensing, promoting investment, or providing services to Data Center operators to the Cabinet. The BOI is preparing to review and intensify project screening frameworks to align with this committee's direction, focusing on cost-effectiveness and national benefits alongside efficient energy and water use and environmental protection to avoid community and other sector impacts.
Recently, Data Center investment has grown rapidly as critical infrastructure supporting the country’s digital economy transformation and organizational shifts. They are also key to developing the country's AI technology. However, this rapid growth has raised concerns about electricity and water consumption, environmental impacts, and ensuring cost-effectiveness and national benefits.
"The BOI recognizes societal concerns and believes these questions must be answered with concrete data and measures. Thailand’s challenge should not be to reject all Data Center investments or accept all projects without conditions but to determine what kind of Data Centers are needed, what they must include, and collaboratively design rules to maximize benefits for the country and its people from these Data Centers."
Global digital experts view Data Centers as essential digital infrastructure worldwide, playing a significant role in countries’ and organizations’ digital transitions—such as providing cloud services, processing vast data quickly, securely storing sensitive data like banking, healthcare, and security information domestically, and serving as a core for upgrading business and industrial sectors to support digital finance, e-commerce, smart factories, healthcare systems, government services, cybersecurity, and AI development using Thai language, data, and expertise.
Furthermore, hosting Data Centers in Thailand enhances the country’s digital industrial ecosystem by improving access to cloud and AI services for all enterprises, reducing latency, boosting system efficiency and security, lowering international data transmission costs, and attracting technology and innovation investments as well as skilled experts and talent to Thailand.
Currently, major global cloud providers like AWS and Google have invested in Data Centers and launched Cloud Regions in Thailand. Their investments go beyond building facilities and installing servers; they also focus on continuously developing Thailand’s digital workforce. For example, AWS collaborates with King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang to develop Thailand’s first Data Center Engineering master's degree, supporting scholarships for data center engineering personnel. AWS also runs the ThaksaAI project to develop Cloud Computing and Generative AI skills for 23,000 students across 50 provinces.
Meanwhile, Google’s Digital Bridge project develops digital skills for 100,000 SMEs and individuals, supporting 22,000 scholarships for Google Career Certificates aligned with labor market needs. These examples show that Data Center investment benefits extend beyond infrastructure to include workforce development and enhancing Thailand’s digital capabilities.
Importantly, investors are diverse and not concentrated in any single country, addressing concerns about investor nationality. BOI examined parent companies or ultimate controlling entities of each project and found that from 2024 to 2026, 42 Data Center projects were approved with a combined IT load of 3,400 megawatts and total investment of 750 billion baht. Thai companies lead with 15 projects; others include 10 from China, 5 from the United States, 4 from the United Arab Emirates, 2 from Japan, 1 from Malaysia–Hong Kong, and 5 from other nationalities including Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Australia, and France. This confirms the diversity of Data Center investors in Thailand. Notably, no new Data Center promotion applications have been received since April.
Additionally, over the past year, BOI has repeatedly adjusted Data Center measures, progressively tightening criteria and evaluation processes to align investments with national readiness. These criteria cover electricity readiness without affecting other users, energy efficiency (PUE), water management, employment, and personnel development. However, given evolving circumstances and societal concerns, the BOI Board has agreed that a comprehensive and stricter review framework is necessary.
Going forward, BOI will enhance project screening to align with the "Data Center Business Policy Committee" established by the Prime Minister's Office regulation. BOI will apply policies and guidelines from this committee in screening projects before promotion approval. Currently, BOI is studying these aspects to support the committee’s work, covering at least four key dimensions:
1. Creating Benefits for Thailand For example, employment and personnel development including high-skilled jobs, developing Thai engineers and technicians, collaborating to develop curricula or establish training centers, creating career advancement paths for Thai personnel into management and key technical roles; using domestic equipment and certifying and developing Thai vendors; integrating SMEs into supply chains; transferring standards or technologies that enhance Thai operators’ capabilities; technology development such as establishing research teams or labs in Thailand, collaborating with universities and research institutes, and developing digital, AI, energy, cooling, cloud, and cybersecurity technologies; and developing the national AI ecosystem by enabling SMEs, startups, universities, and key economic sectors to access and benefit from cloud services, computing power, and AI tools, thereby increasing productivity and creating new businesses in Thailand through Data Center investment.
2. Energy Readiness and Security Including power generation capacity, transmission systems, energy efficiency technologies, and responsibility for infrastructure costs to avoid burdening other electricity users. Recently, the National Energy Policy Committee approved classifying Data Center electricity users separately to impose higher electricity rates reflecting the true costs of energy procurement and grid expansion. Data Center projects must provide electricity usage guarantees to screen for ready-to-operate businesses and ensure investors appropriately bear arising costs, alongside promoting increased use of clean energy and green Data Center technologies.
3. Water Resource Readiness and Efficiency Including evaluating water sources, cooling system technologies, water recycling, imposing special high water rates, and water management capabilities during dry seasons to prevent impacts on agriculture and local communities.
4. Environmental Impact and Measures Including urban planning, preventing fire hazards and pollution such as heat, noise, wastewater, and impacts on communities and the environment throughout the project lifecycle.
Moreover, relevant agencies are accelerating data integration to create nationwide Power and Water Maps to plan suitable zoning areas collectively.
Regarding concerns about importing Data Center equipment, BOI data shows that over the past three years, many leading companies have started investing in manufacturing key Data Center components in Thailand, making the country a major global hub for such equipment. Examples include Hard Disk Drive production by Seagate and Western Digital; AI Server manufacturing by Inventec and QMB; high-speed optical transceiver and module production by InnoLite, E-Optolink, Silestica, and Fabrinet; electronic printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing by over 50 leading global producers; cooling systems by Delta Electronics; and network systems, switches, and power control sets produced by numerous Thai manufacturers.
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