Eletronet Secures Connectivity Role at Scala AI City and Atlantic’s Recife1 Data Centers

Eletronet has been designated the first connectivity provider for Scala Data Centers’ AI City project in Eldorado do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, located 32 kilometers from Porto Alegre. The agreement includes installation of a Point of Presence within the campus as part of a carrier-neutral architecture designed to expand interconnection options across multiple routes and digital hubs. The infrastructure will be configured to handle hyperscale operations and high-density AI computational applications, according to Rogerio Garchet, Eletronet’s CEO, who emphasized that AI training and inference applications require connectivity infrastructure as strategic as power supply due to critical data transmission and operational stability requirements.

Scala AI City was announced in 2024 with a total planned capacity of 5 gigawatts when fully developed. The first phase envisions a 54-megawatt IT capacity data center on a 5.35 million square meter site. The campus is being designed for modular expansion aligned with market demand, with Luciano Fialho, senior vice president of corporate development at Scala Data Centers, confirming the company acquired approximately 5 million square meters adjacent to the Guaíba 3 substation and maintains purchase options on an additional 5 million square meters. The facility targets global technology, cloud, and AI companies requiring large-scale processing infrastructure. The project incorporates plans for 100 percent renewable certified energy, power usage effectiveness below 1.2, and zero water usage effectiveness in cooling systems.

Eletronet’s connectivity strategy extends beyond Scala AI City through planned edge data centers in Chuí, Rio Grande do Sul, and Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, creating expanded traffic routing possibilities from southern Brazil and neighboring markets including Uruguay and Paraguay. The campus infrastructure will connect to strategic international routes including the Malbec submarine cable linking Argentina and Brazil, providing traffic alternatives and redundancy for high-capacity computational operations.

Separately, Eletronet secured first operator status for direct connectivity to Atlantic Data Centers’ Recife1 facility in Pernambuco, scheduled to inaugurate in the first quarter of 2026. The positioning enables Eletronet to function as a traffic catalyst for the data center connecting to major consumption and interconnection centers, particularly Fortaleza and São Paulo. The Recife1 facility represents a 300 million reais total investment developed across three phases on approximately 14,000 square meters, with the initial phase providing capacity for over 150 racks and 1 megawatt of IT power supported by 50 million reais in financing from the Brazilian Development Bank. Subsequent phases could expand IT load capacity to 6 megawatts or higher.