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AI drives Southeast Asia data center boom. Johor Bahru, at the Malaysia-Singapore border, is emerging as Southeast Asia's fastest-growing data center city. This rise could position Malaysia to surpass Singapore as the region's largest hub. Neighboring Thailand is also in the race, with ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) highlighting Thailand's advantages, despite its slower growth compared to Malaysia.
Kasikorn Research Center predicts that Thailand's data center investments will reach $7.8 billion between 2024 and 2027, with an annual growth rate of 31%. Alongside local energy companies and real estate developers, multinational tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent are vying for a foothold. Microsoft plans to invest $1 billion to establish its first Azure region data center in Thailand.
