Thai billionaire Sarath deepens bet on AI in Google tie-up

[BANGKOK] Billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi’s Gulf Development, Thailand’s largest power producer, is deepening its expansion into artificial intelligence with an agreement with Alphabet’s Google to jointly explore business opportunities.

Gulf Edge, Gulf Development’s unit, signed a strategic framework agreement with Google to provide AI infrastructure services, according to a Thai exchange filing. The partnership aims to support Gulf Development’s transition into an AI-native technology company, it said.

The accord comes as Google carries out plans invest US$1 billion in Thai data centres.

For Sarath, the move underscores his ambition to build a digital ecosystem spanning energy, virtual banking, telecommunications and data services after consolidating his power and telecom units last year.

Gulf Development has been ramping up investments in data centres by partnering with companies such as Microsoft and Singapore Telecommunications as demand for AI and cloud computing services surges in the region.

Under the agreement, Gulf Development and Google will target enterprise customers in sectors including financial services, health care and telecommunications, as well as government agencies. The collaboration will also look to provide so-called sovereign AI and cloud capabilities designed for sensitive data.

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Sarath, who is Gulf Development’s CEO, has a net worth of US$13.2 billion and is the country’s second richest person, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. BLOOMBERG