Latin America is increasingly positioning itself as a competitive destination for data centre investment, driven in part by growing multinational interest in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. While much of the current discourse on AI-related investment focuses on competition between Europe and the United States, industry experts say Latin America is emerging as an important player in this evolving landscape.
International companies are factoring AI readiness into their decisions alongside traditional considerations such as talent availability, costs, and regulatory stability. With abundant land and energy resources, plus the advantage of nearshoring opportunities for North American firms, Latin America is gaining appeal as a strategic location for data infrastructure.
Brazil and Mexico have established themselves as leaders in the region’s data centre sector, but countries like Colombia and Peru are making strides by offering qualified, lower-cost talent pools. This growing interest has prompted several government-led initiatives aimed at stimulating investment. Brazil recently introduced tax incentives designed to attract data centre development, especially facilities that support AI training and inference—the computational process by which AI models generate predictions from new data. Meanwhile, Chile is exploring the potential use of government-owned land specifically for data centre projects.
More than 20 data centre development projects are projected to come online across Latin America by 2026, reflecting rising demand and the region’s appeal to investors. Stakeholders highlight that the decision-making process for AI infrastructure investment is no longer a binary choice between established markets in Europe and the U.S. Instead, Latin American countries able to provide the necessary technical skills, computing capacity, and regulatory frameworks may climb higher on global corporate lists for operational, research, and development expansions.
The concept of “AI openness,” or a country’s receptiveness to AI innovation and infrastructure, is expected to influence not only the division of investments between traditional markets but also determine which emerging economies become hubs for the next generation of international technology growth. This suggests Latin America’s role in the global AI ecosystem could expand significantly in the coming years.