Gulf Energy CEO Sarath Ratanabadi (left) and Google Cloud vice president for Asia Pacific Karan Bajwa.
Billionaire Sarath Ratanabadi’s Gulf Energy is stepping up investments in digital infrastructure, partnering with Alphabet Inc’s Google to build an artificial intelligence-powered cloud facility in Thailand.
Through this partnership, Gulf Energy announced that its subsidiary Gulf Edge will become Google’s first Thai partner to offer Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) services in Thailand. The two companies also plan to develop additional services within the Google Cloud ecosystem in the future, including forays into AI and cybersecurity solutions.
“This will enable our mission-critical energy and utility systems to handle data-intensive tasks with enhanced security and resilience,” Gulf Energy CEO Sarath said in a statement. “The success of GDC in Thailand is a strategic imperative as its adoption across regulated industries will not only increase our country’s digital competitiveness but also create new revenue opportunities for our company.”
Saras has been diversifying into telecoms and digital businesses, including partnering with billionaire Chanpen Zhao’s Binance to set up a cryptocurrency exchange, after his flagship company Gulf Energy (one of Thailand’s largest power producers) acquired a controlling stake in AIS and its parent company InTouch in 2021. Recently, the company said it would invest another 10 billion baht ($271 million) to double its data center capacity to 50 megawatts by March next year.
“Looking forward, we look forward to expanding our collaboration with Google Cloud to drive our business growth in Thailand and overseas, especially in areas where there is synergy between their technology and our core technologies,” Mr Sarath said.
Salas has a net worth of $11.3 billion. Forbes The list of Thailand’s 50 richest people was released in July 2023.
