Tax incentives, local manufacturing of components and Brazilian AI: the best-placed presidential candidates in the polls present these as some of the proposals in their government plans to attract the construction of data centers in Brazil.
A data center ("data center", in English) is a place that stores and processes information. Among the most common models are cloud models — cloud, for storing files and operating services on the internet — and artificial intelligence, for training complex language models.
Facilitating the construction of data centers is an action that some of the candidates consider important to take advantage of the advancement of AI. But while Brazil tries to attract these facilities, countries like the United States have faced protests against the sector's advancement.
With rejection elsewhere, why do candidates in Brazil want to attract more data centers? Among the reasons are differences in the size of markets and energy matrices of countries.
The USA has more than 4,700 data centers and leads the segment, according to September data from the Data Center Map website. Brazil, in turn, has 218 complexes of this type and occupies 12th place in the ranking.
With fewer facilities, it is necessary to store and process a lot of data abroad: Brazil ended 2025 with a deficit of US$8 billion in the trade balance of Computing and Information Services, according to Brasscom, an association of Brazilian technology companies.
And while the US relies mainly on energy generated by fossil fuels, including oil and natural gas, electricity in Brazil is generated on a large scale by renewable sources, such as hydroelectric plants.
What is common in Brazil, the USA and other countries is the discussion about the high consumption of energy and water by data centers: residents of several American cities protested against the advancement of these facilities, and Brazilian authorities questioned the impacts of these projects.
For Daniel Cordeiro, professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) and specialist in sustainable and high-performance computing, Brazil needs to increase its computing capacity, but must try to avoid problems that are being faced in other countries.
"We haven't yet reached the number of data centers and problems that these other countries already have. We have to look at the problems that are happening in other countries and take precautions so that the same doesn't happen here", he says.
According to Thais Ortega, research coordinator at Reglab consultancy, the attraction of data centers is a consensus among the main candidates, but there are differences in the models envisaged to achieve this objective.
"Everyone converges to attract, but what will the attraction be like? Brazil has a strategic position, with several positive points. We cannot predict whether or not we will have the problems of the USA, but we can try to mitigate them with regulations", he highlights.
Marina Garrote, director of operations at Reglab, says that Redata, a Brazilian regime that reduces taxes for data centers, but requires socio-environmental compensation, can help the country overcome some of the challenges faced in the USA.
"With the US energy matrix, more data centers mean more carbon emissions and higher electricity bills for the neighbor. In Brazil, if the expansion is, in fact, based on wind and solar energy, the social cost will be a little different", he states.
In the US, 64% of the population disagrees with the idea that building data centers quickly will be positive for the country, a Reuters/Ipsos survey revealed. The survey indicated that 57% are against the creation of these complexes in their neighborhoods.
Even with the strong rejection, President Donald Trump has defended the advancement of the facilities. In a meeting with executives from technology giants last Tuesday (29), he stated that these ventures will be very popular in the country.
Among the guests were Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, leaders of xAI, Meta and Google, companies that develop artificial intelligence models, as well as Jensen Huang, from Nvidia, the main manufacturer of chips for AI training.
The meeting ended with a commitment from companies to reinforce security controls for their AI models after episodes in which they got out of control and carried out cyber attacks. Trump said companies "want to do the right thing" and will "regulate themselves."
"These big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to make enormous contributions to communities," Trump said of data centers. “They will do some really beneficial things, both financially and in other ways.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sanctioned in September the Special Taxation Regime for Data Center Services (Redata), which eliminates import taxes on equipment used in data centers.
To take advantage of the benefit, companies must use only renewable or low-carbon energy and use a maximum of 50ml of water per kilowatt-hour (kWh). They must also allocate 10% of capacity to the Brazilian market and 2% of the value of equipment for research in the country.
In his proposals, Lula (PT) defends promoting Brazilian artificial intelligence companies and creating national versions of language models, such as those used by services such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) defends reducing taxes on energy for data centers and linking the demand for these facilities to the national exploration of critical minerals, used in the manufacture of AI chips.
Ronaldo Caiado's (PSD) government plan establishes data centers as part of an innovation chain, connecting them to the development of semiconductors and language models in the country.
Renan Santos (Mission) proposes to transform Brazil into the largest exporter of data processing for AI models and create zones with a specific tax regime for data centers.
Romeu Zema (Novo) defends the creation of a stable regulatory environment to guarantee legal security for companies in the sector.
The other candidates do not mention data centers in their government plans.
Daniel Cordeiro, from USP, points out that policies to attract data centers should start to take effect in a few years, but says that it is necessary to pay attention to possible problems as soon as possible.
"We need this computing park installed in Brazil. The question is: we have to adapt our industry infrastructure so it can develop, but we must be careful so that the impact is measured and we do not have a problem in the future", he states.
Thais Ortega, from Reglab, remembers that some parts of Redata will still be regulated. One of them is the definition of "low carbon energy", which could open up space for the use of natural gas, a fossil fuel.
"There are points to be closed on the issue of how to measure sustainability that will have an impact on the next government, which will perhaps continue and make some decisions. It is open and is something that must be taken into consideration", he states.
For Marina Garrote, from Reglab, the consensus among candidates on the attraction of data centers is also explained by the wide network of submarine internet cables, which connect Brazil to other countries, and by the internal market.
"The dispute between candidates became 'what' the rules will be regarding the installation of data centers, and not 'whether' they should be installed", he states. "Whether it will be worth it or not is something we need more research to estimate the benefits and losses for the population and the economy."
