Exclusive: Microsoft planning new Brazilian datacenter in Limeira

Microsoft is mulling developing a mega datacenter in the city of Limeira, in São Paulo state, BNamericas has learned.

The project is still at a very early stage and land use is being negotiated by intermediaries and real estate consultants with authorities in Limeira.

The name of the company has been kept confidential, but two market sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to BNamericas that Microsoft is behind it.

When contacted by BNamericas, Microsoft declined to comment.

The first step for the project, completed this week, involved a change in municipal legislation to allow the use of a site in Limeira.

The city council approved a bill (PLC 18/2024) proposed by mayor Mario Botion that changes the city's urban zoning to allow the installation of the datacenter.

The bill was necessary to convert the land-use designation where the site would be built from rural to urban. Brazilian federal legislation does not allow the sale of rural land to multinationals.

The bill was presented and defended by Botion, who negotiated the investment with the datacenter company's representatives.

On July 15, councilors rejected the request for an urgent vote on the bill, with 12 votes against and eight in favor. 

Despite that, the bill received unanimous approval this week. Local lawmaker Francisco Maurino dos Santos filed a request for the mayor to provide a copy of the contract with the multinational datacenter company, which Botion said he had done.

The bill will allow for a change in the zoning of an area of approximately 2Mm², which also encompasses the plot earmarked for the datacenter.

The site is close to neighboring city Santa Bárbara D'Oeste and the Luís Ometto highway.

Botion said the project would bring important development to the city. According to local paper Todo Dia, the datacenter will involve 350,000m2 of floor space to be built in two and a half years, employing up to 1,000 people during construction.

According to one of the sources consulted by BNamericas, there is a possibility that, if it goes through, Microsoft could build more than one site in Limeira.

‘SPEED OF LIGHT’

Fueled by AI, Microsoft is accelerating investments in its data structure in Brazil and across Latin America, both to develop new availability zones (datacenters) and to increase the capacity of existing sites.

“We're building datacenters at the speed of light. Here in Brazil, every month we land machines to be installed in our datacenters. This has been the area in which we've had most hiring in the country,” Microsoft Brasil CEO Tania Cosentino said in response to a question by BNamericas during a press conference at the Microsoft AI tour event in São Paulo in March.

The company operates a main cloud region in Brazil. It is located in São Paulo and dubbed Brazil South. This region is supported by a sub-cloud region in Rio de Janeiro. In May, the company opened its second Latin America cloud region, Mexico Central, in the Querétaro area.

Microsoft has two availability zones, with a third under construction.

As BNamericas reported, Microsoft is building two datacenters in Brazil: in Hortolândia and Sumaré. These sites will add to the São Paulo cloud region, as Cosentino previously confirmed, and will potentially be joined by a Limeira facility.