Mr Chung said Thailand is well-positioned to become a regional AI hub.
Thailand is placing governance, infrastructure and human resources at the center of its national strategy and is betting on reliable artificial intelligence (AI) to become Southeast Asia’s AI hub.
The country is seeking to differentiate itself in the region’s growing AI race, where trust, rather than computing power, is emerging as the key competitive advantage.
“The true value of AI lies not in the sophistication of the technology, but in the benefits it brings to people and the trust it earns,” Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaichanok Chichob said in a video address at the Huawei Thailand Digital & AI Summit 2026 event on Thursday.
He outlined Thailand’s AI strategy centered on three pillars: infrastructure, trust and talent, as the country aims to build a sustainable AI architecture.
The operating capacity of data centers in Thailand reaches approximately 350 MW, with a long-term pipeline of over 2.8 GW.
Chai Chanok said around 40 data center and cloud projects approved by the Investment Committee are strengthening connectivity, resilience and investor confidence.
The government is also promoting AI governance, cyber resilience, Thai AI and workforce development, as well as encouraging global technology companies to build AI capabilities locally.
Chinese people gain momentum
Austin Zhen, deputy managing director of Huawei Thailand Co., Ltd., said generative AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to commercial deployment, with nearly 40% of enterprises already using AI to improve productivity and develop new products.
As adoption accelerates, safety, privacy and controllable AI will become essential for sustainable growth, he said.
China has emerged as a major force in global AI, with its open source model accounting for 46% of global token usage and operating costs approximately 20 times lower than comparable US models.
Mr Chung said Thailand is well-positioned to become a regional AI hub, supported by favorable government policies, 95% nationwide 5G population coverage and nearly 1GW of new data center capacity under development, making the country a gateway to Southeast Asia.
However, companies continue to face high computing costs, fragmented and low-quality data, AI models not tailored to local industries, and a shortage of AI talent who can align technology with business strategy.
He said that to strengthen Thailand’s AI system, companies should prioritize high-value business use cases, use local industry data to build AI models, and develop experts with both AI and business operations expertise.
Huawei plans to provide full-stack AI infrastructure while training 40,000 AI developers in Thailand over the next few years to help build open, secure, and inclusive AI systems.
Trustworthy AI
DES Permanent Secretary Patchara Anuntashilpa said the next stage of Thailand’s digital transformation will focus on trustworthy AI, and innovation must be built on security, responsibility and public trust.
The digital economy is expected to expand by 4.2% to over 5.6 trillion baht in 2026, accounting for 29% of the estimated GDP of 19.3 trillion baht.
Thailand ranks second among ASEAN countries in the 2025 Government AI Readiness Index by Oxford Insights, reflecting steady progress in AI preparedness.
Despite these advances, AI adoption across businesses and in daily life remains below potential, making strengthening AI governance a national priority, he said.
The government is consolidating public sector cloud resources into a national cloud platform, reducing operational costs by nearly 30%.
The government is also promoting investment in sovereign AI capabilities, including the development of a national data center and the Thai Large Language Model (Thai LLM), to strengthen Thailand’s ambitions to become a regional digital and AI hub.
Zheng said that the implementation of AI has entered a new stage, moving from pilot projects to large-scale industrial deployment.
As AI applications, intelligent agents, and digital services become mainstream, enterprises will need a stronger foundation of intelligent computing, trusted data, secure AI governance, and AI-enabled talent.
“The biggest risk in the age of AI is not doing the wrong thing – no action at all,” he said.
At the summit, Huawei launched an initiative to bring together government agencies, universities, research institutes, startups, and technology companies to accelerate AI innovation and talent development.
The company also reaffirmed its ambition to train 100,000 AI professionals to support its goal of becoming Thailand’s AI talent hub.
Huawei showcased the Atlas 950 SuperPoD AI computing platform and launched the Thailand Data Center Alliance to strengthen cooperation in building AI-enabled infrastructure.
