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Thailand's H1 2026 foreign investment applications jump 80% to $40.6bn, led by AI and data centers
欧
欧亚时报编辑部·38d ago·~ 5 min readThailand's foreign investment applications jumped 80% year-on-year to $40.6bn in H1 2026, with AI and data centers driving digital-sector filings past three-quarters of the total.
Foreign investors filed applications worth $40.6 billion with Thailand's Board of Investment in the first half of 2026, an 80% jump from the same period a year earlier, driven largely by artificial intelligence and data center projects.
Digital-sector applications accounted for more than three-quarters of the total, underscoring Thailand's growing role as a regional hub for AI and cloud infrastructure. Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have each announced new cloud build-outs in the country: Microsoft plans to invest more than $1 billion over two years in cloud and AI infrastructure; AWS has launched its Thailand cloud region with a pledge of more than $5 billion over the next 15 years; and Google previously announced a $1 billion investment in cloud and data center facilities.
On scale, the BOI approved six major projects worth 958 billion baht (about $29 billion) in May alone. Over the whole of 2025, the board approved 1.87 trillion baht in total investment, of which 746 billion baht came from data center projects — by far the largest share from any single industry.
To address stalled projects held up by power availability, land access, and visa and work-permit delays, the BOI also issued six special licenses aimed at restarting data center investments worth a combined $9.2 billion.
Analysts say the wave of interest reflects both a broader push by global tech firms to expand AI infrastructure across Southeast Asia and Thailand's relatively stable power supply and strategic location — factors that are also generating knock-on investment in the local semiconductor and electronics supply chain.
Industry observers expect Thailand to further cement its position as a regional digital infrastructure hub as more cloud providers and data center operators set up locally, though power supply and land-use planning capacity remain challenges worth watching.
