Rio de Janeiro AI City Data Center Campus

Status: Announced/In Development   |   Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Project Overview

The Rio AI City project, spearheaded by Elea Digital S.A., is poised to dramatically redefine the scale of data center infrastructure in Latin America and globally. Announced in April 2025, the campus, planned for the Olympic Park area of Rio de Janeiro, targets an initial IT load capacity of 1.8 GW, with the potential to expand to a colossal 3.2 GW by 2032. This makes it one of the most ambitious data center developments worldwide.

Crucially, the project is intrinsically focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), aiming to serve the hyper-dense, power-hungry compute needs driven by large language models and other AI applications. The strategic importance was underscored by a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in August 2025 with technology giants Oracle and NVIDIA to join the initiative as partners, securing key tenets and expertise for high-performance computing design. The technical architecture will feature cutting-edge liquid cooling technology to efficiently manage the extreme heat generated by GPU-intensive workloads, a necessary step for any facility aspiring to be a true AI hub.

The location in Rio is advantageous, leveraging the city's role as a major economic center and a critical cable landing site for international submarine fibre optic cables. Furthermore, the project aligns with the global trend of sustainability, with a firm commitment to operate using 100% certified renewable energy, capitalising on Brazil's clean energy grid.

The development is a direct response to Brazil's rapidly expanding cloud adoption and the enormous infrastructure demands created by the global AI race. With initial operational phases targeted for 2027, Rio AI City is set to transform Rio de Janeiro into a premier Latin American hub for advanced digital services, attracting billions in investment and cementing Brazil's position as a digital powerhouse in the Southern Hemisphere.

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