The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) has on Wednesday approved a 126.8 billion baht ($3.77 billion) data hosting project by leading global video content platform TikTok, and a 3.25 billion baht ($96.61 million) cloud services project by Thailand-based cloud services firm focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) applications Siam AI.

BOI said in a statement that it has approved investment privileges for projects worth a combined 170.5 billion baht ($5 Billion) in value, including the two digital infrastructure projects.

The board also approved revised promotion measures for the bioeconomy, such as promotion of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and Mixed SAF.

TikTok Pte. Ltd., the Singapore-based unit of the Chinese company, received approval for a 126.8 billion baht ($3.77 billion)investment in data hosting services to support the activities of affiliated companies, with operations expected to start in 2026. TikTok has over 1 billion users around the world.

“TikTok’s and Siam AI’s investments mark a significant step in enhancing Thailand’s digital and AI infrastructure and supporting the national goal of becoming a digital innovation hub in ASEAN,” said Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary General of the BOI.

TikTok’s investment follows the setup in Thailand of a string of large data centers and cloud services projects by companies such as Amazon Web Services and Google (Alphabet) from the U.S., Australia’s NextDC, India’s CtrlS Datacenters, and Singapore-based GDS IDC Services PTE Ltd.

Thailand’s total applications for investment promotion in 2024 soared 35% in value to a 10-year high of 1.14 trillion baht ($33.85 billion), led by the digital sector, mainly large foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in data centers and cloud services.

In line with the BOI’s existing policies to promote Thailand as a bioeconomy hub and to stimulate investment that add value to agricultural raw materials and agricultural waste, the board also aproved granting investment promotion privileges to the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and Mixed SAF, a ready to use fuel which mixes pure bio SAF with fossil jet fuel to meet industry sustainability requirements and allows use of the mixed fuel without engine modification.

WeChat, TikTok granted licenses to operate in Malaysia