Maybank Investment Bank sees ASEAN riding on artificial intelligence (AI) boom in next two years because AI capital expenditure (capex) is booming in the region as global tech giants race to invest in chips, data centers and equipment, fueling Asia’s tech exports, energy demand, construction.
The research house said in a recent note that America’s investment in AI-equipment and software surged to an annualized $1.5 trillion in the second quarter of 2025 (4.9 percent of gross domestic product [GDP]) from $1.2 trillion in the second quarter of 2023.
“Asia and ASEAN are highly leveraged to the AI capex boom. US imports of computers, peripherals and parts have doubled to an annualized $336.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025 (1.1 percent of GDP) from $153.1 billion in the second quarter of 2023,” said the research house.
It added US imports of AI related products surged 33 percent in August 2025.
It is noted that in ASEAN, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia account for the largest proportion of AI-related product exports to the United States.
In 2026, America’s six largest hyper-scalers are planning to increase capex by about 36 percent.
The higher AI spending will support ASEAN electronics exports and investments in data centers.
ASEAN-6 electronics exports also grew 25.3 percent over the January to October 2025 period from a year ago.
Within ASEAN, Thailand (+35.3 percent), Vietnam (+27 percent) and Malaysia (+25.3 percent) saw the highest electronic exports growth.
“There has been a wave of AI and cloud-related direct investments across ASEAN. Global tech firms have announced plans for data centers, AI research and development (R&D) facilities and centers to accelerate AI adoption,” said Maybank.
According to the research house, Malaysia and Thailand are attracting more data center investments in ASEAN amid Singapore’s power capacity limitations and land constraints.
As at first half of 2025, Johor had 422MW of data center capacity under construction (+87 percent from the second half of 2024), according to Cushman & Wakefield, adding to the 560MW in operation. Its planned capacity has also grown +61 percent to 1,324MW.
Bangkok’s under-construction capacity jumped 267 percent to 169MW with planned capacity rising 177 percent to 515MW.
In comparison, Singapore has just 20MW under construction and 226MW planned.
Notable investments include ByteDance’s commitment in March 2025 to invest $8.8 billion in Thailand over five years.
In Johor, Currenc Group has committed to a 500MW hyperscale AI campus, while Stack Infrastructure is planning a 220MW campus with the first phase completed by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Cited recent Asian Development Bank report, Maybank highlighted that 1 percent increase in AI spending and cloud spending boosts GDP by 0.03 percent and 0.01 percent respectively on average across a sample of multiple economies.
These estimates account for direct technology spending, in addition to productivity spillovers.
Productivity improvements also accrue primarily to the skilled workforce, with AI adoption raising demand for skilled labor at the cost of job losses for unskilled workers.
Maybank also noted that Singapore spent the most on AI (0.9 percent of GDP) and cloud technologies (1.75 percent of GDP) in 2024, far outpacing Malaysia and the rest of ASEAN.
Including spillovers, the economic gains realized amounted to a substantial 4.04 percent of GDP for Singapore.
Meanwhile, Malaysia spent 0.1 percent of GDP on AI and 0.7 percent of GDP on cloud services, adding an overall 1.34 percent to its economy, according to these estimates.