In a small town in northeastern Thailand nearly three decades ago, a father-and-son team designed and built a modern hardware store just as the country’s economy was about to collapse. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hit weeks after they opened. They survived it, and today that single store has grown into Siam Global House, a … Read more
Most restaurant owners measure success in two numbers: how many branches they’ve opened, and how much money landed in the bank at the end of the year. Maguro Group — the Bangkok-based company behind the Maguro sushi chain, the Hitori Shabu hot pot brand, and nearly a dozen other Japanese and Korean dining concepts — … Read more
For decades, Chiang Mai built its reputation on temples, night markets, and the kind of slow, cafe-culture charm that made it a favorite stop on the Southeast Asian backpacker trail. But a quieter economic story has been unfolding in the city’s back streets — one that has little to do with hotel bookings or tour … Read more
Picture a company that spent two decades building gas plants, pipelines, and power lines — the unglamorous plumbing of an economy. Now imagine that same company standing on stage and declaring itself the backbone of Southeast Asia’s artificial intelligence boom. That is exactly what Gulf Development Public Company Limited (GULF) — Thailand’s largest privately-run power … Read more
A homegrown Thai energy conglomerate just told the world it’s no longer in the gas business — it’s in the business of keeping the artificial intelligence economy running. Here’s why that matters far beyond Bangkok. If you’ve followed the global AI boom from London, Singapore, or San Francisco, you’ve probably heard the refrain by now: … Read more
Thailand’s economic forecasters just did something unusual: they raised their growth outlook in the middle of a year full of global uncertainty. The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) — one of Thailand’s most closely watched university-affiliated economic think tanks, roughly equivalent to how markets in the West track forecasts from a national … Read more
If you have ever cracked open a bottle of iced green tea in Thailand, there is a good chance the man behind it just placed a bet that has nothing to do with beverages at all. Tan Passakornnatee, the flamboyant entrepreneur widely known in Thailand by the honorific “Sia Tan” (a Thai-Chinese term of respect … Read more
On September 10, 2026, two of Southeast Asia’s biggest infrastructure players announced they are going to lay new fiber-optic cable across the seabed between Thailand and Singapore. GULF (formally Gulf Development Public Company Limited, a Thai energy conglomerate listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, or SET — Thailand’s national stock market, roughly the equivalent … Read more
Thailand’s economy is growing faster than anyone expected six months ago. Exports are booming, foreign investment applications have crossed a symbolic trillion-baht threshold, and tourists are once again filling flights into Bangkok and Phuket. On paper, it looks like a genuine recovery story for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. But scratch the surface, and the story … Read more
Thailand’s best-known bottled tea entrepreneur just placed a bet that has nothing to do with tea. Ichitan Group, the company behind the ubiquitous green-and-gold Ichitan iced tea bottles found in nearly every 7-Eleven from Chiang Mai to Phuket, is moving into fertilizer — a business as far removed from beverages as motor oil is from … Read more