Brazil put $444 million into AI machines and deliberately split the order between China and America

At a ceremony in Rio Grande do Norte on 20 August, the Lula government committed 2.3 billion reais — about $444.2 million — to build the country's own AI computing capacity, and divided it on purpose. Just over half, 1.3 billion reais or roughly $251 million, goes to a supercomputing project in Rio de Janeiro developed with China's Huawei and iFlytek, aimed mainly at training large language models for general and sector-specific use; that cooperation agreement is scheduled to begin in July 2027. The remaining 1 billion reais, about $193.1 million, will be spent through a public tender for a machine in Rio Grande do Norte that Brazil expects to rank among the ten most powerful AI systems in the world, with officials including Science and Technology Minister Luciana Santos saying they expect Nvidia to supply it — an expectation, not an award, since the tender has not been decided. That machine is expected to be running by the end of 2027. The money comes from the national science and technology fund, FNDCT, in phased disbursements. The government's stated reasoning was blunt: not depending on a single company, a single technology or a single country, and holding sovereignty over its own data.

✓ Verified · 3 sources

Related stories