Rio AI City data center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio AI City is a data center campus Elea Data Centers is planning in Jacarepagua, in Rio de Janeiro's West Zone, Brazil, near the Olympic Park built for the 2016 Games. Mayor Eduardo Paes announced the project on April 27, 2025 at Web Summit Rio, calling it a step toward the "Innovation Capital of Latin America." Paes signed a protocol with Elea and Oracle on August 14, 2025; the developers plan an initial 1.8 gigawatts by 2027, growing to 3 gigawatts by 2032, DCD and Eixos reported.

The architecture firm Hyphen, which designed the campus's 10 buildings, told Dezeen the first phase will use 1.5 gigawatts, scalable to 3.5 gigawatts, inside a Rio de Janeiro state grid with about 8.5 gigawatts of total capacity. A university researcher told RioOnWatch the project could eventually need up to 3 gigawatts, more than the Rio region's average power use of about 1.8 gigawatts. Oracle and NVIDIA have each signed on as early partners, and it is not yet clear whether the power will come from wind, solar, nuclear or a mix, Eixos reported.

Elea says its cooling systems use no water at all, but researchers who spoke to RioOnWatch said that claim does not address other costs for residents in areas already short on water and power. RioOnWatch pointed to two existing Rio data centers, run by Ascenty in the Pavuna neighborhood and Cirion in Sao Cristovao, sitting in or near favelas with a history of water shortages, power outages and inadequate sanitation.

Licinio Machado Rogerio, president of the residents' federation FAM-Rio, told a public forum that water use, power use, noise and real job creation should be debated before such projects are announced, not after. RioOnWatch reported that City Hall has not released data on the project's expected energy use, water use or environmental impact after RioOnWatch requested it under Brazil's public records law, and that residents have not had a real chance to discuss the plan with the city.

RioOnWatch also pointed to a similar dispute over a ByteDance-linked data center in Pecem, Ceara, where federal prosecutors recommended in May 2026 that authorities tighten environmental licensing and consult the Anaca Indigenous community. For now Rio AI City rests on the protocol City Hall signed with Elea and Oracle, and no construction timeline beyond the 2027 target for the first phase has been published.