Thailand approves $29 billion of investment projects, led by $25 billion from TikTok
PUBLISHED : 6 May 2026 at 15:32
Thailand has approved six major projects worth a combined 958 billion baht, or US$29 billion, the Board of Investment (BOI) reported on Wednesday.
The approvals include a large-scale data infrastructure expansion by a local unit of TikTok valued at 842 billion baht, or about $25 billion, the board said in a statement.
“The project will install additional servers and expand data storage and processing infrastructure across Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao, supporting rising demand for digital services and strengthening Thailand’s role in regional digital infrastructure,” the BOI said in a statement.
Last year, TikTok had said it would invest $8.8 billion in data centres over five years. TikTok is owned by China’s ByteDance.
“Beyond its core infrastructure investment, TikTok has also committed to developing digital literacy and e-commerce curricula to help create new business opportunities for Thai entrepreneurs and strengthen the country’s digital workforce,” the BOI added.
TikTok is a global short-video and social commerce platform, which has more than 2 billion users worldwide, including 368 million in Southeast Asia and more than 15 million business users.
TikTok established its Thai entity, TikTok Technologies Co, as a regional operating office in 2021 when the company received BOI investment promotion for its international business centre operations.
Last week, the BOI reported a surge in investment applications in the first quarter of 2026, with proposals exceeding 1 trillion baht — a 2.4-fold increase year-on-year, driven by mega-projects in the digital and electronics sectors aligned with growth in artificial intelligence (AI).
The ByteDance logo is seen in this illustration (File photo: Reuters)
