MICROSOFT wants to develop Thailand’s AI potential by providing the necessary skills and opportunities to support the nation’s growing developer community.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced an ambitious plan to establish a new regional data center in Thailand and emphasized the potential it could bring to the country and other parts of Southeast Asia during the company’s AI Day event in Bangkok on Wednesday, May 1st.
“Right here in the region, we think and we expect that this intelligence revolution or the AI revolution can add as much as a trillion dollars. Even in Thailand double-digit growth of over a hundred plus billion dollars can be driven because of the productivity curve that can be bent by AI. So that’s the potential that grounds us at Microsoft on our mission to empower every person and every organization in Thailand to achieve more,” Satya Nadella Microsoft Chairman and CEO said.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was also in attendance. An estimated 2,000 developers, business, and technology leaders participated in the event.
Microsoft’s first Azure data center in Thailand requires the technology giant to train 100,000 Thais in utilizing AI, especially in the tourism sector.
Thailand was the second Southeast Asian country that Microsoft has set its eyes on after a recent commitment to invest $1.7 billion in Indonesia.
Nadella said that Southeast Asia’s brimming AI potential can unlock more than $1 trillion in economic value in the region.
The Thai Prime Minister has courted tech firms like Microsoft, in a hope to jumpstart Thailand’s digital transformation, as the Southeast Asian nation struggles to overcome public debt and an aging population.
The initiative can help boost Thailand’s technology sector and solidify its place in the region.
Microsoft recently announced an ambitious plan to equip 2.5 million people in Southeast Asia with AI skills by 2025. These ASEAN member states include Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
