The logo of Google is seen outside Google Bay View facilities during the Made by Google event in Mountain View, California, U.S. August 13, 2024. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo/File Photo
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google said on Monday it would invest $1 billion in Thailand to build a data centre and cloud region to meet growing cloud demand and support artificial intelligence adoption in Southeast Asia.
The investment would create an average of 14,000 jobs annually until 2029, Google said, citing a study of the project by Deloitte.
In May, Microsoft said it would launch its first regional data centre in Thailand as part of its efforts to boost cloud services.
"Google’s cloud and data centre infrastructure in Bangkok and Chonburi will help meet growing demand for Google Cloud capabilities and AI innovations, and the company’s popular digital services - such as Search, Maps, and Google Workspace," the company said.
Its data centre would be located in an industrial estate in Chonburi, while the Google cloud region, which consists of hardware and software dedicated to providing services to private and public sector entities, would be in the capital Bangkok.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said Google's investment was "perfectly aligned" with the country's Cloud First Policy.
(This story has been corrected to clarify that the cloud region provides services to organisations and not the data centre, in paragraph 5)
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Jan Harvey and Susan Fenton)
