Brazil to begin construction on TikTok data center in six months, minister says

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Construction on a TikTok data center in Brazil will begin in six months, an official said on Friday, with the project expected to bring in some 50 billion reais ($9.11 billion) in investment. "Six months from now, we will begin construction to host TikTok's data center," Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said in a statement. Plans for the project, which is expected to be based in the northeastern state of Ceara, were disclosed by Reuters in April, when three people familiar with the matter had said TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance was weighing the move. The facility has been planned for the Pecem port complex in Ceara, in a joint initiative between ByteDance and wind farm developer Casa dos Ventos, according to the sources. Silveira said Brazil has potential to attract data center investments given its renewable energy availability, also touting an executive order signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last month aimed at luring such projects to the country through federal tax exemptions. In May, Casa dos Ventos announced it obtained two key approvals to move forward with a 300-megawatt data center project at the Pecem port complex. ($1 = 5.4910 reais) (Reporting by Roberto Samora; Writing by Fernando Cardoso; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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