Bloomberg Interview with Thailand's Minister of Commerce
U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) leader Nvidia is expected to announce its investment plans in Thailand by the end of this year, Bloomberg reported on the 22nd (local time).
According to the report, Pichai Naripthaphan, Thailand's Minister of Commerce, stated the day before that Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, will visit Thailand in December to reveal the investment policy. Minister Pichai added that investments from related industries will follow starting with Nvidia, but did not mention specific details such as the scale of Nvidia's investment.
Recently, Thailand has been promoting the growth of innovative industries by attracting large-scale investments from big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft (MS), and Amazon. Cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to invest a total of $5 billion (approximately 7 trillion won) in Thai data centers by 2037, while Google announced it will spend $1 billion (approximately 1 trillion won) to build cloud and AI infrastructure. Nvidia, which Minister Pichai mentioned will soon announce its investment plans in Thailand, has been increasing its investments in Southeast Asia, including establishing a $200 million AI center in Indonesia last April.
Minister Pichai evaluated that the interest from IT companies and investors, including Nvidia, will help restore foreign investment inflows in Thailand to pre-2014 coup levels, contributing to reclaiming Thailand's lost decade. Earlier, Thailand marked the end of the military regime that had continued since the 2014 coup by electing the youngest female prime minister, Pattama Chinnawath, in August.
Minister Pichai projected that new investment proposals toward Thailand, including from domestic and foreign companies, could reach up to 1 trillion baht (approximately 41 trillion won) this year. According to the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), the scale of corporate investment plans in Thailand from January to September this year reached 723 billion baht (approximately 30 trillion won), a 42% increase compared to the same period last year, marking the highest level in 10 years. In particular, foreign investment increased by 38%, mainly in the data center and printed circuit board sectors, accounting for 76% of the total investment scale. The BOI explained, "Thailand's solid digital infrastructure, clean energy resources, and strong government support provide an environment suitable for data center and advanced technology investments."
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