Thailand's Gulf Edge Company Ltd, the digital infrastructure arm of Gulf Group, has signed a "strategic partnership" agreement with Google Cloud for access to AI infrastructure.

As reported by Bloomberg, the agreement will see Gulf Edge working to "transform" all of Gulf's businesses - including AIS, Gulf's acquired telco through its 2024 merger with AIS parent company Intouch Holdings - into AI-powered companies using Google Cloud and its AI services and infrastructure.

It is also not the first sign of Google and Gulf Edge paring up. In June 2024, the two revealed plans to establish a sovereign cloud offering in Thailand that would enable customers to meet data residency, security, and privacy requirements in Thailand, while also providing access to artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics capabilities from Google.

Under this partnership, Gulf Edge operates a Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) as a Managed GDC Provider, available as either an air-gapped on-premises solution or from within a Gulf group data center.

The new agreement builds upon this further, leveraging AIS' "extensive network," Gulf data centers, and Google's AI stack including Gemini Enterprise.

Sarath Ratanavadi, CEO of Gulf Development Public Company Limited, said: “This expanded partnership with Google Cloud marks a significant milestone in our journey to build a future-ready digital ecosystem for Thailand. It positions Gulf Group and affiliates at the forefront of AI-driven transformation, with a clear objective to pioneer secure, sovereign, and agentic AI solutions for Thai businesses. This collaboration will ignite Thailand’s growth engine in digital industry, build local talents, and open up new business opportunities in line with global AI trend."

Karthik Narain, chief product and business officer, Google Cloud, added: “AI presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform how we work, run our businesses, and what we build for our customers. We’re proud to partner with Gulf Edge to help accelerate Thailand's journey toward an AI-driven future, and to give every Thai organization the agility to solve complex challenges and the scale to turn bold ideas into reality.”

AIS also has a cloud offering - AIS Cloud - based on Oracle Alloy.

The partnership followed shortly after Google announced the launch of its first cloud region in the country. Revealed yesterday, January 21, Google's latest region is based in Bangkok and is the result of a $1 billion investment pledged in 2024 to develop the cloud and data center infrastructure necessary.