Plans for a 300MW data center in Thailand have moved a step closer after the company behind the project purchased a plot of land for the campus.

Chinese data center operator Beijing Haoyang Cloud & Data Technology Co. has bought the land from WHA Industrial Development (WHAID), one of Thailand’s leading industrial estate developers. The data center will be developed by Haoyang’s local subsidiary, Haoyang Data Center 1.

The site is located in the Rayong province at the WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 4. Haoyang expects to spend 72.7 billion baht ($2.164bn) building the data center. It is hoped the data center will be operational by 2026.

“As global demand for computing power surges, driven by advancements in AI, Haoyang Data is excited to bring our extensive experience from Mainland China to Thailand,” said Lai Ning Ning, Chairman and CEO of Haoyang.

“Our strategic investment in a 300MW hyperscale data center facility in Rayong underscores our commitment to supporting the growing digital infrastructure needs in Thailand. We believe this project will enhance our global presence, significantly contribute to the region’s development as a digital hub in Southeast Asia, and empower more Chinese enterprises to go overseas.”

Haoyang currently operates five data centers in China, and the Thailand facility will be its first international expansion. The project was approved by Thailand’s investment board in March.

Thailand is seen by many data center operators as an emerging market with big potential, and has attracted several hyperscale projects in recent months.

TikTok has committed to investing $8.8 billion over the next five years in data centers in Thailand. AWS launched a cloud region in Thailand earlier this year, and Alibaba Cloud also launched a second data center in the country in February.

Google has plans for a Thai cloud region it revealed in August 2022, and in September 2024, said it planned to spend $1 billion on cloud and data infrastructure in the country. Microsoft also plans to build a data center region in Thailand.