The World Bank said data centers require large volumes of water and electricity and warned that Thailand faces a risk that the resource burden of rapid data center investment may not be matched by economy-wide benefits if the country’s digital economy remains insufficiently developed.

It said the expected broader gains from data center capacity depend on stronger linkages and wider uptake across the economy, and noted that Thailand may not yet be positioned to generate those spillover effects at scale.

The World Bank identified the absence of an effective framework to set and charge for industrial resource use, including water, as a key challenge in managing these costs.