President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Thursday (20) a financial contribution of R$ 2.5 billion intended to improve the Brazilian infrastructure essential for the development and training of artificial intelligence (AI) models.
One of the central focuses of this initiative is the implementation of a supercomputer valued at approximately R$ 1 billion in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. This equipment will integrate the new Brazilian Center for High-Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence, located at the Augusto Severo Scientific and Technological Park (PAX) in Macaíba, in the metropolitan area of Natal (RN).
Investment Details
The specific project for the structure foresees an amount of R$ 1.06 billion for acquisition and operation. Of this amount, R$ 960 million will be allocated to purchasing hardware, while R$ 100 million will cover preparation and operational phases. The resources are provided under CT-Infra, a research infrastructure financing mechanism, and are part of the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA).
Lula justified the choice of Rio Grande do Norte as a measure to distribute investments beyond the country's most prosperous regions, mentioning that the decision was made after considering the needs of the states.
For comparison, the Santos-Dumont supercomputer, currently the most powerful in the country and located in the interior of Rio de Janeiro, operates at 27 petaflops. Government projections indicate that training a large language model, such as GPT-4, on the Santos-Dumont would take about 11 years, whereas with the new machine, this process could be completed in approximately one month.
Infrastructure Scope and Benefits
The use of the new structure will not be restricted to the government. According to the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Luciana Santos, the equipment will be available to universities, technology institutions, companies, and public bodies. The infrastructure aims to support companies and startups in developing and training their own models, as well as AI and data science research centers. Furthermore, governmental institutions can use it in sectors such as health, agriculture, climate, industry, and public services.
Santos emphasized that the scope goes beyond the simple acquisition of equipment, pointing out that there are reciprocal requirements from companies, forming an 'ecosystem around this machine' with structural benefits for the country.
The selection of Rio Grande do Norte was presented by the government as a strategy to disseminate technological infrastructure across the national territory and increase the scientific and economic capacity of the Northeast region. The State Governor, Fátima Bezerra, stated that Rio Grande do Norte offered the most appropriate technical conditions, citing abundant clean energy as a crucial factor.
The availability of renewable energy, with a strong presence of wind and solar sources in the State's energy matrix, was a criterion considered by the government. It is expected that the presence of the supercomputer will boost research and training in AI and high-performance computing in the Northeast, promoting integration between research centers and universities.
Economically, the government projects that the machine will attract researchers, startups, and technology companies to the State and the entire region. The installation site, the Augusto Severo Scientific and Technological Park, honors the Potiguar researcher Augusto Severo, who died in 1902 during an aircraft explosion.
PBIA Technological Fronts
The Rio Grande do Norte supercomputer constitutes one of the three technological fronts presented by the government to expand Brazil's supercomputing infrastructure within the PBIA. The second front involves technological collaboration with China, aiming to implement an advanced computing structure in Rio de Janeiro. The third front focuses on the development of open-architecture chips, to be carried out in Campinas (SP).
The common objective of these three actions is to reduce Brazil's dependence on outsourced computational capacity and increase the necessary infrastructure for training AI models. The PBIA foresees a total investment of R$ 23 billion between 2024 and 2028, covering research, innovation, professional training, and AI applications.
Additionally, the government plans to establish a supercomputing infrastructure in Rio de Janeiro through a partnership between Huawei and the National Network for Education and Research (RNP), a social entity linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation. This center is set to begin operations in 2027 and aims to develop a large language model (LLM), similar to those used by ChatGPT and Claude. The cooperation will include the Chinese company iFlytek, a specialist in translation and transcription, with the intention of creating a functional model in Portuguese and Spanish.
The projected investment for this partnership is R$ 1.276 billion over five years, and it includes the training of three thousand Brazilian professionals. In return, Huawei and iFlytek must provide technology transfer, research, and development, as declared by the government. This amount is considered modest compared to the estimated private investment of almost R$ 50 billion for the construction of a TikTok data center in Ceará.
Another announced initiative is the creation of a 'Brazilian cloud,' whose cost has not yet been defined in the budgetary package. This proposal envisions computers installed in Brazil with greater national control over the software. The government has already invested more than R$ 1 billion in the installation of cloud servers managed by Serpro and Dataprev, and the current goal is for these servers, used in public computing, to be manufactured in Brazil and use software shared with the Union.
The third technological front, focused on patent-free chips, will receive R$ 125 million from the government, seeking to raise another R$ 125 million from the private sector. With a horizon of ten to fifteen years, this strategy aims to strengthen Brazil's capacity to develop chips, reducing dependence on technologies controlled by few corporations or nations. The chips will be based on the RISC-V architecture, an open and non-proprietary technology, and will be developed by the Eldorado Institute in Campinas (SP), in a model comparable to the innovation ecosystem of Barcelona (Spain).
The package also includes R$ 50 million for an Algorithmic Transparency Center, which will be managed by researchers from UFMG. Its function will be to analyze risks and failures in AI models available on the market, following a standard similar to the European one.
This announcement by Lula occurs amid intense technological competition between the United States and China in the field of AI. Five days earlier, Reuters reported a White House action to try to isolate China in AI development. There is also mention of the Donald Trump administration, which allegedly warned 35 countries, including Brazil, about possible exclusions from a US-led coalition for distributing technological investments. A document called the Pax Silica Declaration suggests that countries should make a conscious decision about their alignment regarding AI.
This publication occurred four days after Lula declared that Brazil is not yet technologically capable of competing with either the United States or China, expressing a desire to keep both countries 'with us.' In a previous interview with Folha de S.Paulo, Luciana Santos acknowledged that the government will face 'uncertainties and risks' in acquiring supercomputers, citing American threats to suspend supplies to those who negotiate with China. She stressed that American companies are also interested in selling their products to Brazil, given the purchase value exceeding R$ 1 billion for the supercomputer, although she expressed uncertainty about the realization of political statements.