The plans to build a TikTok data center in Brazil are taking shape. Construction work is scheduled to begin in the northeastern state of Ceará in the first half of 2026. The investment is said to be around 50 billion reais (7.8 billion euros). “In six months, we will actually start construction work for TikTok’s data center. 50 billion reais will be invested in Ceará, underscoring Brazil’s potential for such investments,” Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy Alexandre Silveira is quoted as saying in Brazilian media.
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Considerations by ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, about a planned investment in data centers in Brazil became known in April. Brazil is trying with tax incentives for data center investments to strengthen its digital infrastructure, thereby creating more favorable conditions for innovation and significantly boosting private investment in the country.
Brazil Positions Itself as a Location for Data Centers
TikTok’s 300-megawatt data center is planned for the Pecém port complex in Ceará as a joint initiative between ByteDance and Brazil’s leading renewable energy producer, wind farm developer Casa dos Ventos. The Brazilian company has already received two permits in May that were necessary for the construction of the data center at this location. The project is set to utilize the abundant wind energy on Brazil’s northeast coast. Countries around the world are striving to meet the increasing energy demands of data centers, driven by the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. Minister of Energy Silveira stated that his country has sufficient infrastructure and clean, renewable energy to attract data center investments.
The project is unfolding against a backdrop of increasing regulatory pressure on TikTok in the United States and European Union countries, which question the storage and use of data by Chinese companies. With the billion-dollar investment, Brazil will become one of the key locations for ByteDance’s activities in South America. The data center in Pecém is expected not only to serve the Brazilian market but also to serve as a base for TikTok’s operations in other Latin American countries.
First Stargate Project in Latin America
Similar to Brazil, its neighbor Argentina is also trying to establish itself as a location for data centers. At the end of last week, it became known that ChatGPT developer OpenAI and the Argentine energy company Sur Energy have signed a letter of intent for a data center project in Patagonia, in southern Argentina. The initiative, under the name “Stargate Argentina,” involves an investment of 25 billion US dollars (21.6 billion euros) aimed at improving AI infrastructure in Latin America, as announced by the government in Buenos Aires. The data center is intended to have a capacity of up to 500 megawatts and will utilize renewable energy sources. Upon completion, it would be “one of the largest technology and energy infrastructure initiatives” in the country’s history, according to the announcement.
“We are proud to announce plans to launch Stargate Argentina, an exciting new infrastructure project in collaboration with one of the country’s leading energy companies, Sur Energy,” quotes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to the news agency Reuters. According to Altman, the billion-dollar investment is the first Stargate project in Latin America. As part of the multi-billion dollar “Stargate Project” joint venture, OpenAI, together with partners such as Oracle and Softbank, plans to invest 500 billion US dollars in new data centers for artificial intelligence in the coming years.
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(akn)