Microsoft plans to spend more than $1 billion to help build up Thailand’s AI and cloud infrastructure, including the creation of data centers with local partners.
The investment was disclosed following a meeting between the tech giant’s president and vice chair Brad Smith and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in Bangkok.
It is an extension of a collaboration that began in 2023, when the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding to work together.
A new statement released by Microsoft and the Thai prime minister said Microsoft would make the investment over the next three years — from 2026 to 2028 — as part of the country’s “Advancing National Growth, Prosperity, and Global Competitiveness with AI” initiative.
The funding is geared toward opening AI access for millions of Thai citizens, helping upskill workers across all sectors of the economy, and providing a secure, sovereign digital foundation.
As part of this, Microsoft had previously entered into partnerships with leading Thai and global players, including Gulf Development Public Company Limited, Charoen Pokphand Group, True Corporation and True Internet Data Center.
The move underscores what Microsoft says is its ongoing effort to reduce the disparity in AI diffusion between the Global North and the Global South. In the Global North, nearly one in four working-age people actively use AI, while in the Global South, as few as one in seven people use AI.
Earlier this year, Microsoft said it would invest $50 billion to address this inequality by the end of the decade.
“Thailand is already moving in the right direction, and we are committed to helping the cloud and AI advance this country’s entire economy and all of its people,” Smith said in a statement. “Microsoft is proud to support Thailand’s vision for secure cloud and AI, combining trusted infrastructure, secure platforms, and skills so AI adoption translates into real competitiveness and job creation.”
Although the vendor provided no specifics in terms of a timeframe for the opening of a data center hub, Microsoft highlighted several programs it is already involved in across Thailand, including a partnership with the Ministry of Education to develop AI skills among 600,000 students and making 280 of the company’s education courses available to the Ministry of Labor’s Department of Skill Development.
Thailand follows the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East and Portugal in Europe as countries that have recently received investments from Microsoft, as the tech giant seeks to beef up AI infrastructure globally.