Thailand and Myanmar reaffirmed cooperation for Myanmar’s ASEAN reintegration during Min Aung Hlaing’s controversial Bangkok visit. Thailand pursues “calibrated re-engagement,” rejecting legitimacy accusations while citing border realities. Agreements on labor, trade, environment were signed, though ASEAN remains divided over Myanmar’s 5PC implementation amid ongoing conflict.

Key Points

• Thailand pledged continued support for Myanmar’s reintegration into ASEAN, hosting Min Aung Hlaing’s first visit as president; both signed deals on labor, trade, and environmental cooperation despite ongoing sanctions and conflict.
• FM Sihasak defended engagement as pragmatic “calibrated re-engagement,” not legitimization, urging reduced hostilities while acknowledging no military solution exists to Myanmar’s civil war.
• Analysts note Thailand prioritizes border stability over pressuring Myanmar to implement ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, revealing regional divisions on handling the junta.

Thailand’s Diplomatic Balancing Act

Thailand has reaffirmed its commitment to “supporting and continuing to work closely” with Myanmar for its full ASEAN reintegration, following Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing’s controversial two-day visit—his first since stepping down as military chief. Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow defended the visit, stating “it’s not about legitimacy, it’s about reality,” citing shared border challenges.

Thailand’s approach, termed “calibrated re-engagement,” proceeds independently of ASEAN consensus, though Sihasak emphasized that Myanmar’s return to ASEAN summits requires collective agreement, calling it “a two-way street.”

ASEAN’s Fractured Consensus on Myanmar

Since the 2021 coup, ASEAN has barred Myanmar’s leadership from summits, insisting on implementation of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC)—a peace plan Min Aung Hlaing claims lacks full endorsement. Five years later, divisions within ASEAN have deepened, with Thailand appearing to soften its stance while others maintain pressure.

Sihasak acknowledged “there is no military victory” in Myanmar’s conflict, urging reduced hostilities. However, analyst Wai Yan Phyo Naing suggested Thailand’s motivations center on mitigating spillover effects from Myanmar’s crisis rather than genuinely pressuring political reform, noting minimal pressure applied regarding 5PC implementation or domestic political improvements.

Economic Cooperation Amid Ongoing Conflict

Despite Myanmar’s continued sanctions and internal strife, the two nations signed three agreements covering labor cooperation and environmental protection along shared rivers. At a business forum with 700 participants, PM Anutin Charnvirakul emphasized that economic disruption must be avoided regardless of political circumstances, prioritizing employment and stability for citizens.

Min Aung Hlaing, avoiding discussion of ongoing violence, promoted investment opportunities, describing Myanmar as “a peaceful country blessed with abundant natural resources.” This contrasts sharply with reality: his administration lacks full territorial control, with resistance forces holding significant regions. The World Bank recently downgraded Myanmar’s growth forecast to 2%, reflecting the conflict’s ongoing economic toll amid the humanitarian crisis that has claimed over 100,000 lives.

Other People are Reading

FUNDAMENTALS

Spot gold was little changed at $4,339.59 per ounce, as of 0017 GMT, after a more ‌than 7% ⁠gain last ⁠week.
Bullion hit its highest since June 17 on Friday after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data reduced expectations for interest rate hikes.

U.S. gold futures were ​flat at $4,399.40.

Data on Friday showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shed jobs in July and previously reported job gains for ​the prior two months were revised sharply ⁠lower.

Live Events

Following ‌the data release, futures markets flipped the odds ​of a ​rate hike at the September 15-16 Federal ⁠Open Market Committee meeting from likelier-than-not to a worse-than-even chance.
​A lower interest rate environment boosts the attractiveness ​of gold against income-generating assets, as bullion itself earns no interest.
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said hiring data for July represented a continuation of recent trends.
Key U.S. inflation data due this week include the ‌Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Producer Price Index (PPI).

On the geopolitical front, Iran said it was nearing ​a final pact ​with Oman defining ⁠new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions, including compensation and ​an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened.

Among other metals, spot silver rose 0.5% to $63.85 per ounce, platinum gained 0.2% to $1,748.25 and palladium slipped 0.5% to $1,371.16.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0800 China Total Social Financing Jul

0800 China M2 Money Supply YY Jul

0800 China New Yuan Loans Jul

Since the generative AI narrative began accelerating on October 1, 2022, Asian technology stocks have surged 423%, outpacing both U.S. and global tech benchmarks by 228 and 221 percentage points, respectively. 

Key Takeaways

• Asian tech stocks have surged 423% since October 2022, outperforming U.S. and global tech by over 220 percentage points, yet still trade at more attractive valuations with stronger earnings growth.
• Asia dominates as the physical backbone of the AI supply chain, supplying critical hardware components that U.S. and European firms largely cannot produce.
• Decades of embedded ecosystem advantages, skilled labor, and coordinated industrial policy make Asia’s tech supply chain difficult for other regions to replicate, even as reshoring efforts accelerate.

The gains raise a provocative question for investors: are the biggest winners from artificial intelligence not in Silicon Valley, but across the factories and fabrication plants of Asia?

While American companies have dominated headlines by building the large language models, cloud platforms, and consumer applications that define the AI era, a different story has been unfolding upstream. Asian technology firms have positioned themselves as the essential enablers of AI deployment, supplying the semiconductor chips, hardware, and infrastructure without which none of the AI boom would be physically possible.

A Different Role in the AI Ecosystem

The distinction between U.S. and Asian tech is structural, not incidental. Within a single AI server, Asian manufacturers supply components that American and European firms largely cannot: optical transceivers, cooling fans and modules, passive components, and server chassis. The region’s manufacturers also produce critical parts for physical AI and robotics, including actuators, sensors, and batteries.

This specialization shows up in the numbers. The MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Information Technology Index maintains a correlation below 0.6 with both the Nasdaq and the MSCI US IT Index, suggesting Asian tech stocks move to a different rhythm than their American counterparts. For investors already holding U.S. or global tech positions, that low correlation makes Asia tech a natural diversifier rather than a redundant bet on the same trend.

The opportunity set extends beyond AI hardware alone. Asia’s tech exposure spans electric vehicles and autonomous driving, healthcare technology, digital payments, e-commerce, and broader digital transformation, a diversified universe that gives investors more terrain from which to extract returns.

Why the Supply Chain Is Hard to Copy

Asia’s grip on the AI hardware supply chain did not emerge overnight, and analysts argue it will not be easily dislodged. The advantage rests on a combination of factors that developed over decades: a deeply interconnected production network spanning multiple countries, an experienced and cost-competitive workforce, and sustained government industrial policy aligned with private sector growth.

Geographic proximity between countries in the region has enabled faster innovation cycles and more rapid problem-solving, allowing Asian tech companies to iterate quickly and protect their margins. That agility is reinforced by decades of experience mass-producing high-precision components for consumer electronics, expertise now being redirected toward the complex components AI infrastructure demands.

Governments across the region have compounded this advantage through long-term, coordinated investment in infrastructure and talent pipelines. As other regions now pursue reshoring and localization strategies in response to AI demand, they face a challenge that goes beyond simply building factories: replicating an entire system of interdependencies built up over generations.

The result is that even as the United States remains the dominant source of AI-related demand, Asia has cemented its position as the world’s primary AI production hub. AI-related goods now represent a meaningful share of total exports for markets including China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Valuation Gap Persists Despite Outperformance

Perhaps counterintuitively, Asian tech stocks’ strong run has not erased their valuation discount to U.S. peers. Data as of May 29, 2026 shows Asian tech remains more attractively valued than U.S. tech, while also carrying stronger forecasted earnings growth, a combination that suggests the rally may not yet be fully priced in.

That gap looks more significant against the backdrop of an AI investment cycle that many analysts believe is still in its early stages. Comparisons to the 1990s technology boom suggest today’s AI capital expenditure cycle, measured as equipment and intellectual property investment as a share of U.S. GDP, has considerable room to run before reaching the peaks of that earlier era.

Industry forecasts project the global AI market will grow from more than $300 billion in 2025 to nearly $1.2 trillion by 2030, potentially driving between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in cumulative AI investment. That spending would flow toward AI chips, infrastructure, and the wider technology sector, much of it manufactured in Asia.

Risks on the Horizon

The bullish case is not without obstacles. Power constraints at data centers, production bottlenecks, and export controls on semiconductor chips and equipment all pose risks to the pace of buildout. Uncertainty over how quickly AI monetization and adoption will materialize, alongside mounting privacy, security, and regulatory concerns, adds further complexity. How effectively individual countries and companies navigate these headwinds will likely determine who captures the greatest share of the AI opportunity going forward.

The Bigger Picture

With the United States commanding roughly 76% of global technology benchmarks, investors without a dedicated Asia tech allocation may be systematically overlooking a significant and differentiated slice of the AI opportunity, one built not on chatbots and cloud subscriptions, but on the physical infrastructure making the AI revolution possible.

This article is the second installment in a five-part series examining the AI technology cycle and investment opportunities in Asia. The next installment will examine Asia’s competitive position in the AI server build-out.

Other People are Reading

This article was written by

Follow

This article was written by

Follow

Yes. Corporate subscriptions are available for teams and organisations, with discounted rates as user numbers increase. Pricing starts from $1,625 + GST per user.
Get in touch
to discuss the right option for your organisation.

Business News subscriptions are used by executives, investors, consultants and professionals who need to stay informed and make better decisions about the WA market. When you subscribe you’ll get

• Unlimited access to WA’s most trusted business journalism
• Data & Insights — detailed profiles of WA companies, people, projects and deals
• MyBN — a personalised feed based on the companies, people and sectors you follow
• Special publications and industry reports
• Daily and weekly email newsletters

Data & Insights is a research tool built specifically for the WA market. It draws on more than 30 years of Business News reporting, updated regularly to reflect what’s happening now. Use it to:

• Look up detailed profiles of WA companies, including financials, directors and ownership
• Find decision-makers and track their career movements
• Research live and completed projects across WA industries
• Monitor deals, appointments and market activity
• Access industry rankings and league tables

Data & Insights is updated daily by our dedicated research team, which uses the latest announcements, ASX filings and editorial coverage to keep our person, company, list and project records up to date.

Business News welcome all opportunities to make our dataset accurate, complete and current, so if you have an update request, please email the team at
general@businessnews.com.au, and we’d be happy to assist.

MyBN
is part of every subscription. It’s your personalised view of Business News. You can follow the companies, people, sectors and projects that matter to you, and get a news feed and alerts tailored to your interests. You can save articles to read later and retain only what you need.

Only subscribers have full access to all content on the Business News website.

If staying informed about the WA economy is part of your job, and/or you’re looking for networking opportunities in WA, Business News is built for you.

Business News subscribers are:

• Executives and directors tracking competitors, clients and market movements
• Investors and advisers researching companies, deals and industry trends
• Consultants and professionals staying across sectors relevant to their clients
• Business owners looking for leads, context and market intelligence

Most Business News publications cover national or global markets. Business News is focused entirely on Western Australia, which means the journalism, the data and the intelligence are all built around WA companies, people and projects — not adapted from a national feed. Data & Insights, included with every subscription, combines more than 30 years of WA-specific editorial research with live business data. There’s no comparable product for the WA market.

The Morning Digest Email provides a comprehensive wrap of the major headlines, relevant to WA business, and includes with a snapshot of the overnight news covering oil, gold and ASX-listed companies.

The Afternoon Wrap Email focuses on the news covered by our team of journalists during the course of the working day, including exclusive stories and analysis, all of which relates to WA business and the local economy.

The BN Weekender Email contains a wrap of the Business News from the week that was, highlighting the top stories in each area of WA business.
Sign up for free.

We’re happy to help.
Get in touch
and our team will come back to you.