Thailand’s cumulative data centre investment could reach approximately THB5 trillion by 2050, driven by demand for artificial intelligence, cloud services and domestic data processing. PwC projects capital expenditure to rise from US$58.6 billion in 2027 to US$150 billion by 2050.
PwC said sustainable growth will depend on coordinated planning for electricity, clean energy, water, cybersecurity, environmental standards and community needs. The Eastern Economic Corridor was highlighted as an area requiring careful resource management.
Thailand’s cumulative data centre investment could reach approximately THB5 trillion by 2050 as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, cloud services and domestic data processing expands, according to a new outlook from PwC.
The projection places data centres among the infrastructure sectors expected to support Thailand’s digital economy over the coming decades. However, PwC said the scale and sustainability of that expansion would depend on coordinated planning for electricity, clean energy, water and local community needs.
In a November 3 release, PwC Thailand said cumulative data centre capital expenditure was projected to rise from US$58.6 billion in 2027 to US$150 billion by 2050. The latter figure is equivalent to approximately THB5.06 trillion, using an exchange rate of THB33.77 per US dollar as of October 26, 2026.
The figures come from PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook 2026–50, drawing on capital expenditure modelling by Oxford Economics. The PwC-commissioned study covers 46 countries and territories. The forecast represents cumulative expenditure, rather than annual investment or a list of confirmed projects.
Cloud and AI Demand Support Expansion
Nath Asadithsakun, Deals Partner at PwC Thailand, said the country’s data centre market was benefiting from the expansion of cloud and AI services.
“Thailand’s data centre market is receiving strong support from the rapid expansion of cloud and AI services”, he said.
Citing Board of Investment data, Nath said Thailand recorded 36 data centre investment projects worth a combined THB728 billion in 2025. He also identified the government’s Cloud First policy and clean-energy initiatives, including Utility Green Tariff 2 and Direct PPA, as factors supporting growth.
PwC said AI was changing the infrastructure required by data centres. Facilities increasingly need to support large-scale computing workloads, alongside data storage, with more sophisticated power management, cooling systems and digital infrastructure.
The outlook also identifies digital sovereignty as a growth driver. This refers to a country’s ability to exercise domestic control over the storage and processing of data. According to PwC, growing demand for domestic data centre and cloud services could give Thai businesses and government agencies greater choice over where their information resides.
“Within Asia Pacific, Thailand is among the markets benefiting from growing data centre investment”, Nath said.
“Investment across the region is expected to continue rising, driven by growing demand for cloud and data residency services from the private and public sectors.”
A Long-Term Forecast, With Infrastructure Conditions
PwC projects cumulative global data centre capital expenditure of US$31.6 trillion between 2026 and 2050. Thailand’s forecast forms part of that broader expansion in the infrastructure needed to support AI, cloud computing and increasingly digital public and commercial services.
For Thailand, PwC expects data centres to become strategic infrastructure supporting services such as e-commerce and digital banking. Their development would therefore carry implications beyond the investment value of individual facilities, extending to the reliability and capacity of the country’s digital economy.
The consultancy nevertheless cautioned that resource availability would be critical. It singled out the Eastern Economic Corridor as an area where high demand makes careful energy and water management particularly important. Without adequate forward planning, increased resource consumption could affect local communities and agriculture.
PwC said investment planning needed to address sufficient power generation and transmission capacity, wider access to clean energy, effective water management, and appropriate environmental and location standards.
Electricity and Water Planning Will Shape Delivery
“The growth of data centres presents an opportunity to strengthen Thailand’s digital infrastructure, but success should not be measured by investment value alone”, Nath said. Also explained that the supporting ecosystem must include clean-energy generation and transmission, water management, cybersecurity, effective regulation, stringent environmental standards and responsibility towards local communities.
That places practical infrastructure decisions alongside investment promotion. In locations such as the EEC, the planning challenge is to accommodate additional computing capacity while ensuring that power and water systems can continue serving households, agriculture and other businesses. PwC’s outlook identifies that balance as a condition for sustainable expansion.
“With systematic planning across these areas, data centre investment can grow alongside economic development while ensuring the responsible use of resources over the long term”, Deals Partner at PwC Thailand concluded.
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