Rafael Luz, head of Cloud & DevOps at keeggo, explains that the market is advancing, and demand is growing, noting that the major global internet providers are now operating in Brazil. 

“For many years, Brazil has been progressing in the construction of data centers, primarily to support demands for cloud services, the digital transformation of companies, increased data consumption, and the arrival of 5G, as well as the growing use of artificial intelligence solutions. These demands are largely met by major global providers like AWS, Azure, GCP, and Oracle,” Luz explains. 

However, Luz points out that Brazil is a developing market compared to other global regions. To illustrate this gap, he cites AWS, Amazon's cloud computing service, which has 3 availability zones in South America, each represented by one or more data centers; in North America, AWS has 25 zones. 

In September, Amazon announced that AWS will invest R$ 10.1 billion to build, connect, expand, operate, and maintain data centers in Brazil. Prior to this, the company announced another investment of R$ 19.2 billion, made between 2011 and 2023.  

According to JLL, the average area of data center projects is 60,000 m². The company's mapping revealed that Campinas is the region with the highest number of projects, with an operation of 410 MW, which were not always designed and built for this purpose. 

Bruno Porto explains that for projects not initially intended for data centers, it is necessary to adapt the logistics property for this use. This operation “typically involves restructuring the entire electrical system of the property, from its substation, including equipment like generators, batteries, UPS, power panel sizing, dimensions and distribution of power cables, to the grounding system.” 

Additionally, Porto explains that the entire operation involves setting up a high-precision cooling system, with control over temperature, humidity, and air quality, designed to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

Sources consulted by the team estimate that the costs of a project can range from R$ 5 million to R$ 15 million, and depending on the project, it can reach up to R$ 1 billion.  

To ensure smooth operation, data centers require not only the infrastructure of the facility they are located in but also the entire energy supply of the region. According to data from the Quarterly Electricity Consumption Bulletin by the Energy Research Company (EPE), Brazilian households consume an average of 177.7 kWh per month. In contrast, the largest data center operated by Scala, one of Brazil's leading cloud solution companies, has a maximum capacity of 24 MW, equating to 17.28 GWh, about 97,000 times more than a single household. 

This impressive figure is expected to rise even further considering the implementation of new AI variants and cryptocurrency mining. A report from Santander revealed that ChatGPT consumes 10 times more energy than Google. 

In one month, based on 9 billion searches, ChatGPT consumes 783 GWh globally, around 24 times more than Scala's most powerful data center. Meanwhile, Google's searches consume 76.5 GWh per month. 

The Santander report predicts that the use of AIs, not just ChatGPT, will increase demand for data centers, a trend also anticipated by Amazon. In the document, AWS states that “this investment in AWS cloud infrastructure and connectivity in the State of São Paulo will help meet the growing demand from customers for cloud services and generative artificial intelligence.”  

Due to the high energy consumption, Amazon is also investing in infrastructure to help with environmental preservation. The company revealed that it aims to achieve zero carbon emissions in all its operations by 2040. They have invested in a solar park and a wind farm that together produce 530 GWh of clean energy per year; according to the company, this investment could power 100,000 Brazilian households, accounting for 0.11% of the national total, according to IBGE. 

In addition to AWS, the Keeggo executive explains that several companies are committed to creating a more sustainable infrastructure for their assets. 

“Another major provider, Azure, from Microsoft, aims to become carbon negative by 2030. In other words, Microsoft commits to removing more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits. Google, with its GCP cloud service, has achieved its goal of using 100% renewable energy to power its global operations, including data centers in Brazil, since 2017.” 

Luz states that these actions reflect a critical awareness among companies and the desire to adhere to ESG practices, which can have financial implications for a company, as a survey by Union + Webster reveals that 87% of Brazilian consumers prefer to buy from companies that adopt sustainable practices.