Surging data demand is positioning Thailand as a key hub for scaling next-generation storage, according to Seagate, reports the Bangkok Post.
"Thailand is a critical part of our global supply chain, with nearly 50% of our global workforce located in the country," said K.F. Chong, executive vice-president of global operations at Seagate Technology.
Seagate has operated in Thailand for more than 40 years, with its largest manufacturing operations in Nakhon Ratchasima province and Theparak, Samut Prakan.
Over that time, the company has invested more than B100 billion in capital equipment, created over 15,000 jobs, and contributed materially to Thailand’s export value, supporting more than 1% of national GDP through direct and indirect economic activity, he said.
Regarding whether Seagate will shift more operations to Thailand to hedge geopolitical risks, Mr Chong said the company’s strategy is geographic balance, not concentration.
Global data creation is accelerating from less than one zettabyte in 2005 to more than 70 zettabytes in 2020 and 527 zettabytes expected by 2029, he said, driven by AI, cloud and automation adoption.
"Data storage has moved to the centre of AI infrastructure alongside computing, networking and power" said Mr Chong.
Roughly 87% of data in large cloud data centres live on hard drives because they deliver the economics required at hyperscale.
Seagate is pushing a major inflection point in storage with its HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording), which uses a microscopic laser to dramatically increase data density without enlarging drive size.
The company’s next-generation Mozaic 4+ platform, the industry’s only HAMR-based storage platform deployed at scale, is now qualified and in production with two hyperscale cloud providers. Supporting capacities of up to 44 terabytes, this qualification reflects production-scale deployment in hyperscale environments.
Seagate is to scale from today’s 4+TB per disk toward a future 10TB per disk enabling hard drive capacities of up to 100TB.
Norachet Saetang, country manager and senior vice-president of Thailand operations at Seagate Technology, said the nation sits at the centre of the company’s global manufacturing model.
The Theparak plant serves as the global hub for nano-recording head manufacturing.
The Nakhon Ratchasima campus plays a pivotal role in Seagate’s vertically integrated production model by overseeing the entire manufacturing process, from nano-transducer fabrication and nano-recording pack production to full hard drive assembly and quality testing.
"Thailand is where Seagate’s innovations move from ideas to reality," said Mr Norachet.
The company has seven factories located in six countries, including the US, Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore and China.
Seagate’s operations in Thailand function as "smart factories".
"We use AI and machine learning in the production and quality testing processes to ensure the highest precision at the nanoscale," he said.
Mr Chong said Seagate’s primary investment focus in Thailand is to increase data capacity (TB per drive) to meet surging demand, rather than just increasing the sheer quantity of drives produced.
Thailand is always the first to deploy Seagate’s newest, world-class technologies, he said.
"We select Thailand as a strategic location, complete supply chain and availability of talents," Mr Chong said.
Mr Norachet said Seagate Thailand is also a hub for R&D. Both campuses are involved in developing new products, refining processes, and exploring
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
The firm is one of the largest exporters of data storage devices in the region and employs thousands of skilled professionals.
He said Seagate has invested more than B160 million in education, co-developed university curricula, and conducted over 150 joint research projects.
More than 10% of its specialised workforce holds technical degrees or PhDs (over 90 people).
"Seagate maintains a highly stable condition and current global challenges are not impacting its businesses, due to strong mitigation plans," said Mr Chong.
Seagate Thailand’s operations remain unaffected by the Middle East war because of its strict inventory management and contingency plans, said Mr Norachet.