The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) said on Saturday that applications submitted between 2023 and the first half of 2026 totalled 23.5 billion baht. The proposed projects cover specialised components and industrial materials used in electronics, batteries, electric motors and hydrogen technologies.
The figures represent investment applications rather than completed expenditure. The agency did not provide a breakdown of project approvals, construction schedules or the amount already invested, leaving the pace at which the proposed capacity will become operational unclear.
Narit Therdsteerasukdi, secretary-general of the BOI, said domestic production of sophisticated materials could reduce dependence on imports and allow Thai suppliers to participate in higher-value international manufacturing networks. The agency wants to develop industries supplying essential inputs rather than relying principally on assembly operations.
The applications include multilayer ceramic capacitors, graphite films used for heat management, engineered ceramics, neodymium magnets, materials for batteries and fuel cells, and specialised glass and quartz fabrics used in printed circuit boards. Nanomaterials for precision manufacturing are also represented.
Such products are important to increasingly powerful computing equipment. Multilayer ceramic capacitors help regulate electrical power in electronic circuits, while graphite films dissipate heat generated by densely packed components. The BOI said a high-end AI server can contain as many as 30,000 ceramic capacitors, illustrating the scale of demand associated with advanced computing infrastructure.
Among the companies identified by the agency, Taiwan’s Fultech Fiber Glass produces glass fabrics for circuit boards, including higher-performance varieties suitable for AI servers. Jones Tech manufactures synthetic and natural graphite films designed to transfer heat away from electronic devices.
Other projects target electric transport and energy storage. BGN Thai produces coated foils for lithium-ion batteries, while Phinis Well manufactures neodymium magnets used in electric motors. Xinyuan Graphite supplies bipolar plates for hydrogen fuel cells, extending the range of technologies covered by the investment pipeline.
CoorsTek Advanced Materials, part of the US-based ceramics group CoorsTek, has invested in engineered ceramics used in automotive pressure sensors and silicon nitride balls for hybrid bearings. Those bearings have applications in electric vehicles and wind turbines. Golden Egret Cemented Carbide produces tungsten carbide powders for precision cutting tools.
Thailand already hosts established electronic component manufacturers, including Japan’s Murata Electronics and Kyocera AVX Components. The BOI cited these operations as part of the industrial base supporting the proposed expansion into more specialised upstream production.
The announcement follows broader growth in investment applications for technology-intensive industries. BOI figures released for the first half of 2026 showed total applications rising 37 per cent from a year earlier to approximately 1.47 trillion baht across 1,299 projects. Digital infrastructure, including data centres, accounted for a substantial share of the total.
Those economy-wide figures are separate from the 23.5 billion baht advanced materials pipeline, which covers applications accumulated over a longer period. Comparing the two as if they represented the same reporting window would overstate the scale of the materials industry’s immediate expansion.
The government’s electronics strategy has also focused on printed circuit boards, a manufacturing segment closely linked to AI servers and communications equipment. Authorities announced approvals for further expansion by three circuit-board manufacturers involving more than $668 million in investment, with over 5,000 additional jobs expected from those projects.
Electric vehicle manufacturing provides another source of potential demand. BOI data published in September placed cumulative approved investment across Thailand’s electric vehicle supply chain at approximately $4.59 billion through August, covering vehicle assembly, batteries and key components. That total concerns a different investment category and should not be added to the newly disclosed applications without checking for overlap.
Narit said the agency would continue supporting research, technology development and workforce training alongside investment promotion. Its stated objective is to increase the share of advanced materials and components manufactured domestically for regional and international customers.
The investment drive also reflects Thailand’s efforts to attract suppliers serving multiple industries, rather than individual product categories. Manufacturers of specialised materials can potentially supply electronics, automotive and renewable-energy customers through overlapping production capabilities and established distribution networks.
The BOI calculated the dollar equivalent of the latest proposals using an exchange rate of approximately 33.76 baht to the US dollar. The agency, established in 1966, administers investment promotion for both domestic and foreign businesses.
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