Thailand pauses all datacenter builds and approvals

Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Council has halted all datacenter constructions and approvals while establishing proper regulations. Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul acknowledged Thailand's economy benefits from datacenters, but admitted the government lacks sufficient data about existing facilities and new build pipelines.

The council granted operators and investors a week to submit information about their operations to expedite the creation of a unified regulatory framework. The government aims to determine the number of datacenters needed and their format. All datacenters utilizing more than 2 MW of electricity will be considered industrial businesses, and "resource utilization fees" will be introduced to prevent increased costs for the public due to indirect datacenter build costs.

A process will be established for future builds to ensure maximum benefit for Thailand's economy. Fujitsu has not allocated funds for compensation in the Horizon project, saying they await the results of a statutory inquiry. NEC may not commercialize an in-house quantum computer due to the lengthy timeframe for a return on investment.

South Korea is developing its own cybersecurity model, with Naver leading efforts to build a foundation AI model focused on security. The government also launched an "AI for all" project to create a free government-operated chatbot. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek plans to purchase over 160,000 Huawei GPUs for a new inferencing datacenter, indicating the country is unlikely to import Nvidia hardware and is enforcing its policy of using local technology.

APNIC, the regional internet registry for Asia Pacific, has advanced discussions on improving the diversity of its leadership roles, with members expressing the desire for more information on becoming a community leader and the advantages of coming from larger economies.