Amazon Web Services Inc (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon, launched the AWS Asia-Pacific (Thailand) Region on Wednesday, its new Thai data centre region, as part of its long-term investment of more than US$5 billion in the country.
AWS estimates the construction and ongoing operation of the new region will add roughly $10 billion to Thailand's GDP and support an average of more than 11,000 full-time jobs at external businesses annually.
These jobs including construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecom and others will be part of the AWS supply chain in Thailand.
The launch offers customers more choice to run workloads and securely store data in Thailand, while serving end users with even lower latency.
The data centre region is part of AWS's commitment in 2022 to invest more than $5 billion in Thailand by 2037.
An AWS Region refers to a cluster of data centres in a specific geographic area.
The AWS Asia-Pacific (Thailand) Region consists of three availability zones.
After two years of construction, the company is ready to provide services from its 35th region globally, said Vatsun Thirapatarapong, country manager of AWS Thailand.
The regional data centre reflects the company's long-term commitment to meet high demand for cloud services in Thailand and across Asia-Pacific, said Mr Vatsun.
According to the Board of Investment (BoI), AWS already invested 25 billion baht in the first phase of its region to construct three data centres in Thailand.
In 2024, the BoI received applications for investment incentives for 47 projects worth 173 billion baht for data centres and cloud services from Thai and foreign companies.
"The availability of the Thailand region is an important milestone for the nation's digital future," Mr Vatsun said.
The region will accelerate government and business innovation, while elevating skills for artificial intelligence-ready workforces, he said.
Mr Vatsun said 80-90% of AWS's Thai corporate customers use the service provided by the AWS Singapore Region.
The company is offering them free migration to the Thailand Region, which offers a lower service price than the Singapore Region.
"We think small businesses and startups will migrate to use the Thai region first, while large enterprises will take time to migrate," he said.
Mr Vatsun said the financial, manufacturing, healthcare and public sectors should benefit from the Thailand Region.
AWS Thailand Region expects to have more than 100 services available in a year, equal to the Singapore Region, he said.
Mr Vatsun said if Thailand can cut electricity prices to be on par with Malaysia and provide a greater supply of renewable energy, this will help the Thai data centre business to reduce cloud computing prices.
All of the electricity consumed by Amazon's operations, including its data centres, was matched with 100% renewable energy in 2023.
In Thailand, he said there is inadequate support for renewable energy so the company purchases carbon offsets to reach its goal.
Wisit Wisitsora-At, digital economy and society permanent secretary, said the AWS Region in Thailand is expected to increase Thai GDP growth by 1%.