Brazil’s government on Thursday announced investments of about 2.3 billion reais ($444.2 million) to strengthen the country’s artificial intelligence ecosystem, with projects involving both U.S. and Chinese companies as Brasília seeks to balance relations with the two global powers.
More than half of the investment, 1.3 billion reais, will fund a supercomputing infrastructure project in Rio de Janeiro developed in partnership with China’s Huawei Technologies and iFlytek. The infrastructure will primarily support the development of large language models for general and sector-specific applications.
Another 1 billion reais will be allocated through a tender to build a supercomputer that Brazil expects to rank among the world’s 10 most powerful AI-processing machines. The system will be installed in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, which was selected for its strong energy potential.
Government officials said they expect U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to win the tender, while Science and Technology Minister Luciana Santos has also indicated that Nvidia is likely to supply the system.
“The strategy is not to depend on a single company, technology or country,” Lula’s administration said, emphasizing that the investments are intended to strengthen Brazil’s sovereignty over data.
The projects will be funded by Brazil’s National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development through phased disbursements. The government expects the supercomputer to begin operating by the end of next year, while the cooperation agreement with the Chinese companies is scheduled to begin in July 2027.
The announcement reflects President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s push for greater strategic autonomy as Brazil navigates its relationships with China and the United States. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner, while the U.S. remains its biggest source of foreign direct investment.
The government also announced a partnership with Spain to develop semiconductors using the open-source RISC-V architecture, plans for a Brazilian cloud-computing service through public-private partnerships, and the future creation of a national center for algorithmic transparency and trustworthy AI.
