🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

How Scala engineered its 5GW power advantage

• The 5 gigawatt power connection goes beyond a routine permit. It came through direct work with government bodies.
• Eldorado do Sul, near Porto Alegre, approved legislation that widened urban zoning and sped up procedures for the Scala AI City campus 1.
• Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy approved the connection, though it still needs sign-offs from the national grid operator and the power regulator 2.
• The power regulator recently rejected another data center developer’s request over grid overload risks, which makes Scala’s progress stand out 2.

Brazil’s bid to become an AI processing export hub

• Scala AI City is built to export AI processing services, rather than serve only local demand 2.
• The campus can handle server racks above 150 kilowatts and uses liquid cooling built for heavy AI workloads 3.
• The project aims to make Brazil a “powershoring” destination, a place that draws computing projects with abundant power. It pairs renewable energy with less than 80 milliseconds of data travel time to North America through submarine cables 4.
• Its planned 4.75 gigawatt capacity is nearly eight times Brazil’s current operational data center capacity, giving Latin America’s tech infrastructure a much larger global footprint 2.