In the age of virtuality and cloud computing, the need for land-based servers represents not only a geographical backlash but a resurgence of the physical world as a whole. From online sales to AI, including messaging and location-based apps, everything that makes up cyberspace depends on storing information in real servers—servers made of matter and occupying physical space. Like everything else in the real world, servers are subject to thermodynamic laws that link work, heat, and energy. Ultimately, data centers are foundational structures for Industry 4.0. Therefore, deciding where to install them becomes a geopolitical issue.
As crucial centers of a value chain that moves billions of dollars and permeates the entire cyberspace—composed of hundreds of thousands of hard drives managed by fewer than a hundred people—data centers consume vast amounts of energy and water. In both cases, the highest demand is dedicated to cooling the processors. In 2022, data centers accounted for just over 1% of global energy consumption. On one hand, significant efforts are being made to improve the energy efficiency of the sector. On the other hand, given the growing demand for data centers and applying Jevons’ Paradox (greater efficiency in resource use leads to greater consumption), it is expected that the proportion of energy they consume will increase in the coming years.
For all these reasons, our region has come under the radar of major tech companies and the governments of the countries where these companies are headquartered. Amazon is already building a data center in the city of Querétaro, a municipality in central Mexico, and Google is constructing another in the city of Colonia Nicolich, near Uruguay’s capital.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested during a Senate hearing the installation of data centers in Paraguay. Rubio explained that, on one hand, AI development will involve increased energy consumption and, on the other, Paraguay still does not know what to do with the surplus of its share of energy generated by the Itaipú Dam, a hydroelectric plant it shares with Brazil.
Last week, we also learned that TikTok plans to build a data center in the municipality of Cacuia, in the state of Ceará, Brazil. The decision to locate it there was based on two factors. Its strategic location on the northeastern coast places the city near the intersection of undersea internet cables. Additionally, the fact that Ceará is a major producer of solar and wind energy also worked in its favor. It’s worth noting that while Ceará has abundant energy resources, the same cannot be said for water. In fact, water scarcity is a constant in Cacuia.
There are at least two bills in the Brazilian Congress on this subject: Bill 2,338/2023, concerning AI in general, and Bill 3,018/2024, which specifically addresses AI data centers. However, both within and outside Congress, what has prevailed—especially among business leaders—is the pursuit of legal frameworks that make Brazil attractive for the installation of such infrastructure. As a general rule, the argument is that with one of the cleanest energy matrices in the world, Brazil could host a significant number of data centers.
This reasoning highlights what some might call a lack of a development plan and national projection. Others might say that this is the plan: to renew Brazil’s credentials as a dependent and subordinate country. On one hand, Brazil’s attributes would be its potential to generate clean energy and its water availability; on the other, the country would host facilities that employ very few people and whose technology would come entirely from abroad. The contribution to lowering operating costs and environmental footprints for Big Tech would be achieved through the strengthening of rentier economics and the re-primarization of developing economies.
It is urgent that society as a whole engage in this debate. We are living in a time of technological transition, with impacts on production, consumption, human relations, and politics. We are living in a time of hegemonic transition: soon, China will replace the United States as the world’s most powerful country.
The debate over data center policy is just one small part of a deeper conversation: where does Brazil want to be in the unfolding historical period? Or, put another way, what will be Brazil’s place in the world of Industry 4.0 and in a world dominated by Chinese hegemony?
This is not about opposing one country or another. If there is no project to foster a genuinely Brazilian industrial innovation ecosystem, Brazilians will be condemned to dependency and subordination. Without a project, we will merely change the country to which we submit. If we do not behave responsibly in negotiations, if we do not have national development as our guiding principle, no country will respect us.
Brazil and the region’s countries need a policy that absorbs the technologies of existing Industry 4.0. Otherwise, our skilled labor force will have to choose between emigrating, taking on jobs below their potential, or working in their own countries but for foreign companies. Otherwise, we will remain dependent on the primary sector, which concentrates income and generates few jobs—most of them low-skilled.
We must not deceive ourselves into thinking this is a minor or purely technical issue. While on the surface there are technical standards and regulations for installing such facilities, at its core this is about what can and cannot be done with natural and human resources. It is about the role we want to play in the production, circulation, and appropriation of global wealth—whether as a platform for the accumulation of foreign companies or as a relevant actor guiding the global economy and politics.
*Machine translation proofread by Janaína da Silva.
Autor
Geographer and Political Scientist. Professor at the Municipality of Duque de Caxias (PMDC) and Digital GT Coordinator of Rebrip (Brazilian Network for the Integration of Peoples). PhD student in International Political Economy (UFRJ).
