Why Cirion is upping the ante in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro will soon become the Brazilian city hosting most Cirion datacenters. 

The company just announced a project for a second datacenter in the city, RIO2, which is a massive 60MW site due to be operating in 2026.

The proximity of submarine cables, a robust interconnection network and the presence of major clients, in addition to good power infrastructure and commercial demand, help explain the company’s bet on the city, Gabriel del Campo, Cirion's VP of datacenter, security and cloud services, told BNamericas.

Cirion has been in Rio since 2001 when the company was still called GlobalCrossing and had different owners. Since then, and after several M&As, it has changed its name to Level3, CenturyLink, Lumen and finally Cirion. US fund Stonepeak is its current owner.

In Rio, Cirion operates a landing station for submarine cables in the Vargem Grande neighborhood. Overall, the city is a landing point for eight international systems.

Additionally, the company has one of its seven satellite teleports in the city.

DRIVERS

The purchase of adjacent land for RIO2 is also directly linked to the capacity limits at its initial site, RIO1.

RIO1 currently has 4.5MW in installed capacity, said Del Campo. This site is undergoing a final expansion, the last possible, hence the need for a second building to accommodate customers, he said.

With the last expansion at RIO1, to be completed by the end of this year, the datacenter will gain an additional 2MW of power for use, reaching 6.5MW. The expansion exclusively is to serve existing leasing customers.

For now, Cirion does not yet have lease agreements signed or firm commitments from potential customers for its second site. In this respect, RIO2 is a bet on future demand that Del Campo believes will come naturally.

RIO2's delivery phases until reaching maximum power of 60MW have not yet been defined.

Cirion's management has stated that operations will start in 2026 and is still to decide how much capacity and colocation space the site will have when it opens.

According to Del Campo, the planning of this phase is currently being discussed.

“Today, the demands are much greater. There has to be capacity ready. But the first phase is the most important,” he said.

Alphabet, Amazon, Akamai, Bradesco, EdgeUno, Eletrobras, Itaú, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Petrobras, Visa and Zoom are some of the clients of Cirion's broader ecosystem.

ENERGY

On the other hand, Cirion said it has already assured the full 60MW power supply to the site. 

The load usage will increase over time but delivery at the peak has already been guaranteed, according to the executive. The local power distributor is Light.

Cirion also promises to use renewable energy and is currently negotiating with wind and solar companies and related partners for power purchase agreements (PPAs) and green certificates.

The next steps for the RIO2 project include obtaining the pending licenses for the project and selecting suppliers, such as construction companies.

In this case, Cirion did not rely on real estate consultancies to select land as it wanted the adjacent property, said Del Campo.

LATAM

Cirion has just expanded its São Paulo (Cotia) datacenter, a facility that still has room for growth. The firm relies on a 25MW power substation there, but has 9-10MW currently in use.

Elsewhere in Latin America, the company is on track with expansions in Chilean capital Santiago and Peruvian capital Lima. 

Both cities are gaining a second Cirion datacenter after the first sites reached maximum capacity.

The two new facilities have 20MW in projected capacity and will start operations in the first half of next year.

In Argentina, the company is adding approximately 1.8MW in capacity to its existing park, consisting of four datacenters, said Del Campo.

In addition to the locations where it is already present and expanding, Cirion-Stonepeak's strategic plan includes opening datacenters in new cities to decentralize the network.

“We're actively buying land and we should have more announcements soon,” pledges Del Campo.