Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce corporations, is building South America's first regional data center in Brazil to step up its push into the global artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud markets.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 28th, Alibaba Cloud said it has begun operating two data centers in Brazil. It did not disclose the exact locations, investment amounts, or facility specifications, but local information technology (IT) media reported that the data centers were established in São Paulo.
Based on the new data centers, Alibaba plans to provide cloud services—such as computing, storage, and software—to Brazilian corporations, startups, developers, and public institutions. By processing data locally, it will reduce transmission latency and improve service stability while also complying with Brazil's data management and cybersecurity regulations.
It will also partner with Brazilian technology solutions company Inssi and with 4Linux, an open-source software and enterprise IT services company. By combining Alibaba's Generative AI model "Qwen" with its cloud services, it plans to support local corporations in adopting AI and advancing digital transformation.
Alibaba entered the Latin American market for the first time by opening a data center in Mexico last year. With the latest move into Brazil, its global infrastructure has expanded to 106 sites across 31 regions. In September last year, it unveiled plans to install its first data centers in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands, and it has recently expanded facilities in countries including France and Korea.
Brazil, South America's largest economy with a population of more than 200 million, is seeing rapid growth in e-commerce, financial technology, and online services. In a global cloud market led by U.S. Big Tech, Alibaba is seen as aiming to win customers in emerging markets by leveraging price competitiveness and an open-source AI ecosystem. Alibaba Cloud holds the No. 1 position in China's cloud infrastructure market with a share of more than 30%.
Alibaba said in February last year that it would invest 380 billion yuan (about 77.9 trillion won) over three years in AI and cloud infrastructure. It had executed about half of the planned amount by the end of June this year. Revenue in the AI cloud and computing services institutional sector—which combines cloud and semiconductor businesses—was 48.4 billion yuan in the second quarter of this year, up 45% from a year earlier. It was the highest growth rate in 22 quarters.