TikTok plans to invest more than 200 billion reais ($37.7 billion) to build a datacenter in Brazil, marking ByteDance Ltd.'s first project in Latin America. The investment represents a historic commitment to one of the world's most dynamic digital markets as the company expands its global datacenter footprint.
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Monica Guise, head of public policy at TikTok Brazil, announced the project at an event Wednesday in Ceará attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The datacenter will be developed near the industrial port of Pecém in partnership with datacenter developer Omnia and renewable energy provider Casa dos Ventos, relying fully on wind energy.
The investment comes as TikTok deepens regional ties while facing an uncertain future in the U.S., where the company has failed thus far to finalize a deal to avoid being blocked. Brazil is considered the best-positioned country in Latin America to capitalize on the global boom in datacenter investing to power artificial intelligence (AI), given its abundant renewable energy sources and extensive fiber optic infrastructure.
Lula said the project could serve as an example for other datacenters throughout the country. The president signed a provisional measure in September offering incentives to companies building datacenters in Brazil, including tax-free equipment imports.
Strategic Location and Clean Energy Focus
The Pecém site sits close to Fortaleza, a major hub for submarine cables that provide one of the shortest digital routes from Brazil to Europe and Africa. The facility will be powered entirely by wind energy from local parks, according to Guise, who described it as "a key step that reflects the company's commitment with Brazil."
The project aligns with Lula's broader artificial intelligence ambitions. "I'm convinced this datacenter will be something extraordinary for the technological development of this country," Lula said after the announcement.
Brazil's position as the region's top candidate for datacenter investment stems from its numerous renewable energy sources, interconnected national grid, and the most high-speed fiber optic cables in Latin America. China, TikTok's home base, is by far Brazil's largest trading partner and is seeking to expand economic and political ties across the region amid tensions with the US arising from President Donald Trump's trade and tariff policies.
Global Datacenter Expansion Continues
TikTok uses datacenters worldwide to store and back up user information and has ramped up efforts in recent years to host data regionally amid concerns about data security. The company began construction on a Finland datacenter last year to host European user information.
In Europe, TikTok operates a datacenter in Ireland that opened in September after Covid-19 delays, and is building another. The company also uses a Green Mountain facility in Norway, which handed over its first 30-megawatt (MW) building at the OSL2-Hamar campus in December. Two additional 30MW datacenters at the Norwegian site are due for completion soon, with the facility expected to become Europe's largest datacenter run on renewable energy.
These European projects are part of "Project Clover," TikTok's initiative to store European user data within the continent to address governmental concerns about Chinese access to information. In the US, Oracle Corp. has provided cloud services for TikTok for several years, maintaining a firewall between American users' data and ByteDance employees in China under "Project Texas."
According to Bloomberg, TikTok has also considered a 100MW datacenter facility in Australia since 2024 but faces regulatory hurdles, awaiting approval from the country's Foreign Investment Review Board.
U.S. Market Remains Uncertain
The Brazil announcement comes as TikTok navigates challenges in the U.S. inder the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act signed last year by then-President Joe Biden, Beijing-based ByteDance was ordered to either sell TikTok US or face a ban. The initial January 2025 deadline has been extended multiple times by President Donald Trump in an effort to reach a deal.
The Chinese government pledged a month ago to work with Washington to resolve TikTok's U.S. fate but stopped short of supporting a deal touted by Trump to spin off ByteDance's crown jewel into a venture owned mainly by American investors. Without a completed sale, TikTok faces a ban in the U.S. from January 2026.
