A previously little-known company called X8 Cloud Infrastructure has announced plans to build an artificial intelligence and cloud services data centre complex in Paraguay, leveraging hydroelectric power.
Last week, according to the Data Centre Dynamics website, the company signed an agreement with Paraguay's National Electricity Administration (Ande) to develop what is being described as "the largest AI infrastructure in Latin America".
The company claims that the project, near the capital Asuncion, will provide regional access to world-class AI computing at up to a 70% lower cost, operating exclusively on hydroelectric power. The facility will use energy from the dam on the Parana River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. Shared by Brazil and Paraguay, it is said to be the second largest hydroelectric dam in the world in terms of produced energy.
According to X8, commercial operations are scheduled to start in early 2026 with an initial capacity of 50MW, which will be expanded to 500MW in 2027.
Juan Carlos Dueñas, founder and CEO of X8, is quoted as saying that it seeks to "reinvent the way in which data centres can operate in a sustainable way”. He adds that the project will offer Brazilian companies "AI infrastructure under US jurisdiction, with Brazilian data protection rules and transparent governance, as well as significantly lower costs in training and language model inference”.
Few details about X8, a recent start-up, are available, though its website says: "We invest in LATAM." The CEO, who has worked on a number of US-based technology startups says on LinkedIn: “We've been working on X8 in stealth mode this past year. We're building a renewable cloud infrastructure company that's reimagining how data centres can operate sustainably.”
He adds: “Getting this project off the ground has been a bumpy ride, and the crazy thing is, we're just getting started.”
That said, X8 is not alone in targeting Paraguay, which is emerging as a regional hub for data processing, thanks to its abundant hydroelectric power.
According to the BNamericas news service, X8 CEO Dueñas said in an interview that he plans to expand into Brazil and Argentina in the future and aims to take the company to 5GW of capacity.
