Brazil's US$60bn tech revolution – semiconductors, datacenters, advanced AI at the core

Semiconductors, datacenters, generative AI, advanced robotics, 6G. All are mentioned in the far-reaching program launched by the Brazilian government to stimulate domestic industry through loans, grants, direct subsidies and preference for national products in public procurement processes.

Overall, the 300bn-real (US$61bn) program is focused on supporting local industries on four fronts: innovation and digital transformation, sustainability, expansion of exports and greater productivity.

Innovation and digital transformation are one of its main pillars, although the program also adds other initiatives already launched and plans that had been placed under the umbrella of the Novo PAC growth program, which was put into motion last year.

“It will still be necessary to see how some of the telecom projects, including the PAC telecom projects, for example, and those related to the 5G auction, will fit into the industrial program,” an official from the communications ministry (MCom) told BNamericas. “We still have to fine-tune some details there.”

Examples include the programs for connectivity in schools and for underwater fiber networks in the Amazon, financed with money from the Fust telecom fund and the 5G auction, and which are already being implemented.

Electrical-electronics industry association Abinee said that the industrial program has targets and instruments that can promote the country's “neo-industrialization” and digital transformation.

Abinee participated in drafting the program as it is a member of the national industrial development council (CNDI).

“It was technically very well-developed and our expectation is that the announced measures, which depend on great coordination between various areas of power, will be implemented as quickly as possible in order to provide a horizon for new productive investments,” Abinee’s president Humberto Barbato said.

The program brings together different ministries, but is coordinated by the ministry of management and innovation in public services (MGI) – which is also responsible for government purchases – and by the development, industry and trade ministry (MDIC).

DATACENTERS

One of the initiatives listed is the development of a policy to boost implementation and expansion of “safe and sustainable” datacenters in the country. 

MDIC, national research network RNP, science and tech ministry MCTI and MCom will be in charge of that.

As previously reported by BNamericas, the MDIC had already been working with local industry on measures to further boost and attract datacenters.

The government said it is seeking a policy that “promotes the attraction of investments, densification of chains and the strengthening of the data storage, processing and transmitting ecosystem.” 

In addition to physical infrastructure, this would include promoting cloud computing services with technologies developed in the country, it added.

SEMICONDUCTORS

Another sector mentioned is semiconductors. The government intends to offer refundable (loans) and non-refundable resources (grants) to encourage the development of chipsets in the country.

This is a critical segment in the new geopolitics of technology and supply chains, but one few countries master in its entirety, from front-end to back-end processes.

Non-refundable resources will be allocated to design and manufacturing (front-end), as well as to encapsulation and testing (back-end), the government said. 

The stated goal is to “reduce the country’s productive and technological dependence on nano and microelectronic products and semiconductors, strengthening the industrial chain of information and communication technologies.”

Funds will come from the national scientific and technological development fund (FNDCT) and are estimated at 180mn reais. They would be allocated between 2024 and 2026.

Rogério Nunes, head of Brazilian semiconductor industry association Abisemi, is listed as one of the contributors to the industrial policy.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In artificial intelligence, the government foresees several initiatives.

One of them is to allocate 36mn reais to contract nine projects under the Startup GOV.BR program to support digital transformation in federal administrative bodies.

The focus will be projects based on machine learning, deep learning, big data analytics, natural language processing, and computer vision technologies to solve specific problems outlined by public agencies.

The government's public procurement sector also intends to “strengthen” existing instruments to "stimulate national production and innovation." These instruments are provided for in law No. 14,133/2021 (new tender law) and complementary law No. 182/2021 (legal framework of startups).

The idea is to improve things such as the preference for national products and technologies, and public contracting for innovative solutions (CPSI), among others.

The government estimates that it will complete these tasks by the end of the first half of the year.

Under the Mais Inovação Brasil program on sustainable agroindustrial chains, the government intends to allocate another 400mn reais from the FNDCT as grants.

The amounts will be made available to companies of all sizes, either individually or in partnership with startups, preferably with the collaboration of technological institutes, according to the new policy.

ROBOTICS, 6G AND MORE

In the area of disruptive digital technologies, the Mais Inovação Brasil program also outlines another 260mn reais for 2024-26 in the form of non-refundable money from the FNDCT.

The focus is on solutions in “generative AI, advanced robotics for industry, quantum technologies, cybersecurity, virtual and augmented reality, and advanced communications – 6G and openRan, and blockchain.”

Finep and BNDES will be the financial operators, and will select companies, technological institutes and startups through public calls.