Brazil Invests $444m to Boost AI and Supercomputing

Brazil has announced plans to invest about 2.3 billion reais ($444.2 million) to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) industry and computing infrastructure.

More than half of the investment—1.3 billion reais ($251 million)—will support a supercomputing project in Rio de Janeiro developed in partnership with Chinese technology companies Huawei and iFlytek. The system will mainly be used to develop large language models for general and specialised applications.

Another 1 billion reais ($193.1 million) will be used to acquire a supercomputer expected to rank among the 10 most powerful AI machines in the world. It will be installed in Rio Grande do Norte, a northeastern Brazilian state chosen for its strong energy potential.

The government expects US chipmaker Nvidia to win the tender to supply the machine.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration said the strategy is designed to prevent Brazil from becoming dependent on a single company, technology or country, while strengthening the country's control over its data.

The investment reflects Brazil's effort to maintain balanced relations with both China and the United States. China is Brazil's largest trading partner, while the US remains the biggest source of foreign direct investment in the country.

The projects will be funded through Brazil's National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT). The government expects the new supercomputer to begin operating by the end of 2027, while cooperation with Huawei and iFlytek is scheduled to begin in July 2027.

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