Data centre infrastructure platform Elea Data Centres has won what it describes as the largest IT infrastructure contract of its kind ever awarded in Latin America.

The company, which says it is the leading sustainable platform in Brazil and the first to implement artificial intelligence (AI) on a large scale in Latin America, is to build a data centre for Petrobras, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies.

The R$2.3 billion (approximately US$0.5 billion) 17-year contract represents the largest IT infrastructure deal ever awarded by a Latin American company. It calls for the development of a high-capacity, 30 megavolt-amperes (MVA) data centre with advanced liquid cooling technology.  The project will be installed on Elea's campus in São Bernardo do Campo, in the ABC Region, an industrial region in Greater São Paulo.

The facility will host Petrobras’ supercomputers and process critical scientific data across exploration, research and reservoir operations, while also supporting AI workloads. It will operate on 100% certified renewable energy, incorporate cooling systems with full water reuse, and meet strict efficiency standards aligned with Petrobras’ sustainability requirements. While a handful of sustainable data centres have been built globally, this project is said to be the first of its kind at this scale in Latin America.

The Petrobras contract is not the only big win for Elea recently. Other large-scale Elea initiatives include Rio AI City, a next-generation hub for AI and cloud workloads in Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park. With a projected capacity of up to 3.2 GW, Rio AI City is set to become one of the most ambitious digital infrastructure projects in the region.

Powered by 100% renewable energy, Elea operates a nationwide network of nine interconnected data centre campuses in Brazil, with the capacity and scale to accommodate the high-density cloud and AI deployment needs of Big Techs, and large global or local enterprises.