en.Wedoany.com Reported - Chinese internet technology company ByteDance will build a large-scale data center at the Pecém port complex in Ceará, Brazil, with a project cost of 200 billion Brazilian reais (approximately $38.44 billion) and a planned capacity of 200 megawatts, which may be expanded to nearly 1 gigawatt in the future. Once completed, this data center could become ByteDance's largest facility outside of China.
ByteDance joins a group of Chinese companies seeking to expand globally to address energy bottlenecks, broaden their reach by serving international enterprises, and circumvent U.S. restrictions on AI hardware exports. The data center will feature 20 halls and is expected to begin operations by the end of 2027. Currently, only the pillars of the main structure have been erected, with walls, roofs, and the rest of the shell to be completed subsequently. The construction of the data center is managed by Omnia, which recommended the Ceará site to ByteDance in 2025.
The parent company of TikTok is not the first Chinese enterprise to consider establishing a presence in Brazil. Alibaba Group is evaluating leasing space in a data center cluster under construction in São Paulo, though these plans have not been publicly announced. Brazil has become an attractive destination for international data center operators. The country has made significant investments in clean energy, with 89% of its electricity coming from low-carbon sources in 2025, making it a viable option for operators seeking to decarbonize their operations using renewable energy.
Brazil's regulations are also favorable for data center construction. Last year, Reuters reported that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the exemption of federal taxes on IT-related capital expenditures, including PIS, Cofins, IPI, and import duties. To date, there are over 100 data centers across Brazil. Coupled with improved global market access through submarine cable connections, Brazil could become a preferred destination for companies from China and other countries.
With surging demand for AI and cloud services, sustained investment in Brazil's data center market is expected to push its value to $8.12 billion by 2031. According to Arizton, retail colocation is projected to dominate the market from now until 2031, but ByteDance's latest facility, along with projects from other companies such as Microsoft, indicates growing demand for dedicated self-built facilities.
