The board of directors of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) in Brazil has endorsed two proposals previously approved by the Group for Monitoring the Implementation of Solutions to Interference Problems in the 3.5 GHz Band (Gaispi), to allocate funds left over from a 5G auction for the development of a data center and another project.
Anatel said in a press release that between R$ 1.65 billion (R$ 302.04 million) and R$ 1.7 billion (US$ 311.19 million) in remaining funds had been allocated to the creation of an AI-focused sovereign data center and distribution of TV 3.0 converters for low-income families. The data center project has been budgeted at R$ 375 million (US$ 68.63 million).
“At a time when digital sovereignty has stopped being a topic for specialists and become a matter of national security, this project puts the infrastructure where it needs to be,” said Edson Holanda, Anatel board member and Gaispi chair.
The data center will be located on a 5,000 square meter plot owned by the federal government. It will be operated by Telebras, the state-owned telecommunications company, and it will be integrated with the Federal Public Administration Private Network. The facility will have a liquid-cooled AI module, high-capacity servers, and a redundant power supply. It isn’t clear at this stage what capacity the government is targeting.
“We released around R$ 1.7 billion of the 5G auction leftovers for two projects, while maintaining the obligations of the original tender. We did this with a guarantee I consider non-negotiable: full reservation of what is still needed to complete the original projects, plus a safety margin,” said Holanda.
In October, w.media reported that Brazil’s National Electric System Operator awarded 228 MW of grid capacity to three data center projects in the country as part of the 1st 2026 Access Season under the National Transmission System Access Policy (PNAST). The capacity was awarded through a competitive process under PNAST to allocate remaining grid capacity at four connection points in São Paulo state. Seven projects took part in the process with a combined 451 MW of qualified demand. The capacity was awarded to Pahlavan One, Pahlavan Three, and Digital DC Brasil
As outlined by Mordor Intelligence, Brazil’s data center market is projected to expand from US$ 3.38 billion in 2026 to US$ 6.67 billion by 2031. The momentum is being generated by hyperscale cloud investments, renewable-energy generation, federal incentives, and subsea cable landings in cities such as Fortaleza.