The world of non Chinese based manufacturing for AI parts is expanding with Nvidia’s future investments in Thailand. This adds to Vietnams decision to try to boost its technology related manufacturing and design sectors. With these new developments, the world seems to be responding to the AI boom and the USA’s increasingly harsh technology transfer restrictions against China.
Nvidia has not announced what exactly it will be doing in Thailand but one would think that they would be investing in manufacturers of AI related technologies.
Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, is gaining traction as a hub for building AI infrastructure and manufacturing components, such as motherboards. In general, high-tech companies invest in Thailand as part of their broader strategy to reduce reliance on China. In recent years, Thailand has secured multibillion-dollar investments from major players like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to establish data centers and cloud infrastructure.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/nvidia-plans-to-make-major-investments-in-thailand
Anything that boosts the supply of AI parts or AI infrastructure is welcomed, even if it’s Nvidia doing the boosting. Hopefully Nvidia’s investments won’t lock up all production exclusively for themselves… but who knows when it comes to Nvidia. They basically have a monopoly and monopolies breed horrible behavior. I imagine they might be putting in orders for future parts AND making investments. In essence guaranteeing a customer for risky new facilities and products. We’ll see in December when Nvidia will formally announce its plans.
Anyway, we should all be happy that the world is gaining a larger hardware supplier that isn’t China. Especially with Trump’s tariffs coming up. Thailand isn’t a favored nation in Republican’s eyes but it isn’t China… so that should get it a little relief on tariffs and lower costs for American companies. Tariffs of course will be universally harmful to the entire AI sector due to most hardware being manufactured in foreign nations and the complete lack of domestic manufacturing. It should be noted that even if tariffs did work, it would take decades to build up the workforce and manufactories to produce hardware for AI applications along with all of the other types of manufactories that would need to be built and staffed.
Tariffs like Trump’s don’t work.
But cheers to Thailand!