Thailand's data centre industry is seeking to recast concerns over resource strain as an economic opportunity, arguing that Thailand's unused power capacity can be converted into investment, tax revenue and a new industrial growth engine if the government moves quickly and ensures more benefits stay in the country.
According to the Thailand Data Centre Association, the sector's direct GDP contribution could rise from about 0.93% to 2.47% over five years, supported by roughly 2 trillion baht in capital inflows, significant fiscal revenue and wider private sector spillovers.
It estimates Thailand's actual gross data centre capacity will rise from about 1,400 megawatts in 2026 to around 3,700MW by 2030, implying a 27.2% compound annual growth rate, Supparat Singhara na Ayutthaya, general manager of DAMAC Digital and vice-chairman of the association, told the Bangkok Post.
That projected 2030 figure is about one-eighth of the power reservation number according to news reports. On that basis, policy should be built around realistic committed demand, not the larger volume of preliminary requests.
The public debate has been shaped by a misleading news headline figure: nearly 30,000MW of power reservation requests from data centre operators.
This number does not represent committed electricity demand. Rather, it reflects accumulated reservation requests across the market, including speculative, duplicated and early stage enquiries that may never become operational projects, Mr Supparat said.
This is why the association supports the government's move towards firmer reservation commitments and deposits, which would force serious investors to stand behind the capacity they request and filter out speculative applications, said Mr Supparat.
Thailand does not currently face a shortage of generating capacity. The country has roughly 53 gigawatts of installed generation capacity, compared with peak demand of about 35.9GW, leaving a reserve margin of about 27%.
Even if data centre load reaches 3,700MW by 2030, demand would still sit within existing national headroom.
That surplus is the basis for its broader economic case. Rather than viewing data centres as a drain on national resources, it is a way to monetise idle capacity.
Unused generation is a national asset that earns little while sitting idle; data centres can convert that surplus into revenue, foreign exchange and fiscal receipts, said Mr Supparat.
However, the association also sees two practical constraints: location and fuel mix. National surplus does not automatically mean electricity is available in every corridor where data centres want to cluster, including areas such as the Eastern Economic Corridor.
The association therefore supports investment in a smarter, more dynamic grid that can direct power to areas of real demand and better balance distribution across the network.
The second issue is Thailand's reliance on natural gas. Large, creditworthy data centre users could help accelerate the shift towards renewable power by anchoring long-term power purchase agreements.
The firm demand from data centres can make utility-scale solar, wind and storage projects more bankable. Larger projects, in turn, could lower the per-unit cost of clean energy.
Data centre demand should not be treated as a threat to Thailand's power system, but as a tool to use existing surplus, justify renewable investment at scale and potentially reduce electricity costs for households and businesses if power sector gains are recycled back into the economy.
The association also points to stronger regional competition in wooing foreign investment, including Vietnam's record foreign investment in 2025, led by its manufacturing sector.
Against that backdrop, data centres are one of the few high-value sectors in which Thailand is still gaining momentum.
In 2025, the digital sector was the largest destination for Board of Investment (BoI) applications, at around 746 billion baht, with most of that linked to data centres.
Dedicated data centre applications rose more than sevenfold, from roughly 99 billion baht in 2024 to 728 billion baht in 2025.
In the first quarter of 2026, data centres accounted for the overwhelming majority of a record level of applications exceeding 1 trillion baht.
Malaysia attracted more than US$23 billion from North American hyperscalers in the first 10 months of 2024, while its data centre market is projected to exceed $13.5 billion by 2030.
Indonesia's hyperscale market is projected to roughly double to nearly $8 billion by 2030.
Thailand is currently benefiting from spillover as operators face power, land and cost constraints in Singapore and Malaysia. But that advantage depends heavily on power readiness.
LOCALISATION MODELS
Mr Supparat said Thailand should focus more on capturing the data centre supply chain.
Data centres require substantial mechanical and electrical equipment, most of which is currently imported.
The question policymakers should ask is why Thai companies are not supplying more of these components, especially when data operators are open to local sourcing. The constraint is domestic supply, not demand.
Mr Supparat points to localisation models used by Japanese and Chinese investors, as well as a November 2025 rule in Selangor, Malaysia, which requires new data centres to use at least 30% local content across all areas.
Thailand could adopt and improve on this approach through a formal local content framework and targeted incentives for Thai-owned manufacturers of critical data centre and AI infrastructure equipment.
Moreover, the BoI has already begun tying data centre incentives to Thai employment, SME development, energy efficiency and domestic ecosystem building; hence, Thailand can build a local technology tier within the global AI infrastructure supply chain.
