RIO DE JANEIRO, Might 30 (IPS) – Brazil hopes to quickly reap advantages of its largely renewable power matrix. Knowledge facilities, whose demand is rising with the strides made by synthetic intelligence, are the brand new frontier for these still-uncertain investments.
That is even a matter of “digital sovereignty,” not only for Brazil, in line with Dora Kaufman, a professor in this system on clever applied sciences and digital design on the Pontifical Catholic College of Sao Paulo.
Practically 60% of all Brazilian information processing presently takes place in america—and the determine continues to rise—posing a severe threat, as a pure catastrophe or authorities blockade may paralyze the nation, she warned. “The likelihood of it occurring is low, however the affect could be large,” she advised IPS by telephone from São Paulo.
The Nationwide Knowledge Heart Coverage is predicted to alter this situation, in line with the Brazilian authorities, which has promised to quickly unveil this system. Its potential may appeal to two trillion reais (round US$350 billion) over the subsequent 10 years, claims Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.
Exemptions from federal taxes and diminished import duties on gear are among the many incentives the federal government will supply buyers. These measures anticipate insurance policies already outlined within the just lately accredited tax reform, which can totally take impact by 2033.
The abundance of renewable power, water, and land may additionally function a significant attract a world more and more demanding sustainability in new initiatives.
Excessive Prices in Brazil
Processing information in Brazil is 25% costlier than overseas, primarily because of the tax burden, famous Kaufman. Eradicating this impediment would pave the way in which for a surge in information facilities, as “we now have greater than sufficient renewable power and water,” she argued.
“Brazil has every little thing it takes to host many information facilities, and the challenges are solvable. We want them not simply to develop synthetic intelligence but additionally for the rising digitalization of presidency and companies,” she emphasised.
Nevertheless, the voracious power and water calls for of digital infrastructure—particularly for AI—are elevating issues amongst environmentalists and specialists in power and communications.
“Brazil first must implement an actual power transition. To this point, we’ve solely added renewable sources alongside fossil fuels. A simply transition stays an enormous problem, requiring the electrification of transport—a precedence because of the local weather disaster,” mentioned Alexandre Costa, a professor on the Federal College of Ceará in northeastern Brazil.
TikTok plans to arrange an information heart in Caucaia, a metropolis of 355,000 residents in Ceará. Simply 35 kilometers away, the Pecém port—which incorporates an industrial zone—has plans for a inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing hub, one other main client of water and electrical energy.
Pecém already hosts a thermoelectric plant and a metal mill, each of that are extremely water-intensive.
Fossil Fuels Nonetheless Dominate
The Northeast, Brazil’s poorest area, has turn out to be a beautiful location for initiatives claiming to be sustainable, as it’s already the nation’s largest wind energy producer and holds huge potential for photo voltaic power.
Nevertheless, the exploitation of sturdy, regular winds and ample daylight has already sparked criticism and protests from native communities. The enlargement of those initiatives is encroaching on rising quantities of land, creating conflicts with native populations and small-scale farming, famous Costa, a physicist specializing in meteorology and local weather change.
Nationally, renewable sources accounted for 86.1% of electrical energy consumption in 2022, in line with the federal government’s Power Analysis Firm. Nevertheless, fossil fuels nonetheless made up 52.7% of Brazil’s whole power matrix, dominated by oil and pure gasoline, whereas coal held a small 4.4% share.
This implies Brazil, the place freight transport continues to be closely reliant on diesel vehicles, nonetheless has an extended approach to go in decreasing fossil gas consumption. This transition would require much more electrical energy.
Knowledge facilities will carry further power demand to an economic system already anticipating a surge in consumption—pushed by inexperienced hydrogen initiatives, synthetic intelligence, and car electrification, Costa warned IPS in a telephone interview from Fortaleza, Ceará’s capital.
The identical applies to water sources. “There’s no approach to meet an infinite demand for these inputs,” he careworn. In his view, Brazil lacks an power mannequin that balances new calls for, priorities, and the necessity for an more and more clear power matrix.
Dependence
“Essentially the most severe problem within the authorities’s program is that it goals to subsidize information facilities for Large Techs. We want them for our nationwide networks, but they’re proposing to usher in information facilities for Google, Fb, Microsoft, and so forth., with all the advantages,” criticized Carlos Afonso, a communications know-how skilled and one of many pioneers of the web in Brazil.
He pointed to the shortage of such infrastructure for public entities like Serpro (Knowledge Processing Service) and Dataprev (social safety database), that are important for presidency operations, in addition to the Nationwide Analysis Community that connects universities and different scientific and innovation establishments.
“Will they must depend on information facilities from these Large Techs in Brazil?” he questioned in a dialog with IPS.
It seems that each the federal government’s program for this sector and its inexperienced hydrogen initiative are primarily designed to fulfill exterior calls for, with the aim of making exportable items and providers.
Because of this Kaufman argues for imposing situations on information facilities established in Brazil, comparable to sustainability based mostly on renewable power and 0 greenhouse gasoline emissions, power effectivity, and allocating not less than 10% of put in capability to the home market.
The skilled believes that the big information facilities to be put in in Brazil will primarily serve AI coaching, which minimizes latency, the milliseconds of delay in long-distance communication from origin to vacation spot.
However the actuality—each in Brazil and globally—within the digital economic system is one in every of deep dependence on america, a scenario exacerbated by the insurance policies of President Donald Trump, who prioritized the pursuits of america above all else, even worldwide treaties.
“Three Large Tech corporations from america—AWS/Amazon, Microsoft, and Google—management 63% of world information processing, forming a real oligopoly,” emphasised Kaufman. That dominance is predicted to develop to 80%, she added.
Based on the worldwide statistics portal Statista, as of March 2025, america had 5,426 information facilities—greater than 10 occasions the quantity in Germany (529), the UK (523), or China (449).
The imbalance is even starker in hyperscale information facilities, these occupying greater than 930 sq. meters and housing over 5,000 servers. By the top of 2024, america accounted for 54% of world processing capability, in comparison with 16% for China and 15% for Europe, in line with Synergy Analysis Group.
In 2024 alone, 137 new information facilities have been constructed—a 13.7% progress price—in a pattern anticipated to proceed, pushed largely by developments in synthetic intelligence, notes the analytics and consulting agency based mostly in america.
The infrastructure powering the digital economic system, already connecting two-thirds of humanity and increasing quickly with improvements like cloud computing and AI, stays largely unseen.
Whereas cables, together with intercontinental submarine strains, satellites, and telecom networks are well-known, information facilities—the “brains” that retailer, course of, and distribute data—function in relative obscurity. But, they’ve turn out to be large and strategically essential as world information visitors surges exponentially.
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