(Bloomberg) — A subsidiary of Dubai-based Damac Group is investing round $1 billion in a knowledge heart venture in Thailand, the newest to affix a worldwide push by expertise corporations to construct cloud and AI infrastructure in Southeast Asia.
Damac’s United Arab Emirates-headquartered Edgnex Knowledge Facilities plans to make investments greater than 32 billion baht in three to 4 information heart tasks although a three way partnership with native information heart supplier Proen Company, the businesses mentioned in an announcement Friday. The primary, to be situated in downtown Bangkok, will go browsing by March with an preliminary 5 MW of capability, to be expanded to twenty MW.
The funding follows a plan by Alphabet’s Google to spend $1 billion to construct information facilities in Thailand to fulfill surging demand for synthetic intelligence. That transfer is broadly anticipated to bolster the dominion’s makes an attempt to kickstart a sputtering financial system, which has been suffering from excessive family debt.
Southeast Asia, with its inhabitants of about 685 million folks, is quick rising as a progress alternative for Microsoft Company, Nvidia Company, and Amazon, that are spending billions of {dollars} on AI infrastructure within the area.
Damac will broaden the Bangkok information heart’s capability as the federal government beefs up initiatives to construct a digital financial system, the group’s founder Hussain Sajwani mentioned in an interview. “Because the demand is cooking up and rising, we shall be seeking to launch that – it’s a gradual course of,” he mentioned.
Potential shoppers embrace hyperscalers and AI-related companies, in addition to authorities companies, he mentioned. Damac has a pipeline of roughly 100 megawatts of future information heart capability.
The corporate additionally plans to spend money on high-end residential tasks, Sajwani mentioned, including that Damac’s foray into Thailand may pave the way in which for different Dubai-based corporations to spend money on the Southeast Asian nation.
