Feb 25, 2026 – Bangkok News: The booming AI industry and the acceleration of digital infrastructure construction have made Southeast Asia a new growth engine for global data center foreign trade. Thailand, a major manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia, has handed over an impressive trade report card at the beginning of 2026, with exports of electronic products closely related to data centers surging, driving the continuous growth of the regional data center foreign trade market.
According to official data from Thailand, the total export volume in January 2026 reached 31.573 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 24.4%, setting a four-year high since the end of 2021 and marking the 19th consecutive month of positive export growth. Among them, the export of industrial manufactured goods, which is closely related to data centers, increased by 29.8% year-on-year. Specifically, the export of telephone equipment and components soared by 195.4%, and the export of computers and components increased by 68.2%, which are important supporting products for data center construction.
Industry analysts pointed out that the strong growth of Thailand’s exports is mainly driven by the accelerated promotion of global artificial intelligence applications and the accelerated construction of digital infrastructure. As Southeast Asian countries vigorously promote digital transformation, the demand for data center construction is increasing day by day, attracting a large number of foreign data center equipment suppliers to enter the market. At present, Chinese, American, and European data center enterprises have stepped up their layout in Southeast Asia, launching localized products and solutions adapted to the regional market demand.
However, the data center foreign trade market in Southeast Asia also faces certain challenges. In January 2026, Thailand’s import growth rate reached 29.4%, leading to a trade deficit expanding to 3.3 billion US dollars. In addition, the US government has announced that it will impose a 15% general tariff on Thailand within 150 days to solve the trade deficit problem, which may have an impact on the supply chain of the data center industry in the region. Despite this, industry insiders remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of the Southeast Asian data center foreign trade market, believing that the continuous release of AI computing power demand and the acceleration of digital infrastructure construction will continue to inject impetus into market growth.
Post time: Feb-25-2026