Google starts construction of US$850mn Uruguay datacenter

Having cleared regulatory hurdles, Google has started construction of its US$850 million Teros datacenter in Uruguay's Canelones department.

The facility had been announced in 2020, but the environment ministry's refusal to grant a license due to the use of water for cooling purposes forced the company to reformulate the project and use air instead.

"We firmly and with conviction assume the objective of promoting environmentally friendly production," energy and mining minister Elicia Facio said during the groundbreaking ceremony.

Google's other datacenter operation in Latin America, a campus in Chile, consumed 105 million gallons (397Ml) of potable water in 2023, up from 104mn gallons in 2022. The campus started operations in 2015.

The facility in Uruguay will consume a maximum of 560GWh/y. Google and electric power company UTE signed an agreement under which the latter will supply up to 420GWh/y.

“We can have a great opportunity as a country for projects like this because we have legal certainty,” foreign minister Omar Paganini said. “There is a shortage of datacenters in Latin America, and Uruguay is the place to install them,” he added.

He said the country has the talent for building and operating datacenters, as well as the renewable energy to power them.

Most companies involved in building the facility are from Uruguay, Paganini said.

Google has also installed submarine cable landing stations in Uruguay. The Tannat cable was developed with state company Antel to connect to Brazil, with a subsequent extension to Argentina.

The company also finished laying the 14,000km Firmina cable this year, which connects Las Toninas in Argentina, Playa Grande in Brazil, Punta del Este in Uruguay and South Carolina in the US.

As part of its plans in Uruguay, Google is collaborating with local universities like Universidad Tecnológica and Universidad de Montevideo to incorporate content on cutting-edge technologies. It also collaborated with development agency ANDE and R&D entity ANII.

DIGITAL HUB

The Uruguay Innovation Hub program, with an annual budget of US$10mn, was implemented in 2022 to promote science, technology and innovation, and to establish the country as a technology investment destination.

"We believe that Uruguay has the potential to become not only a regional model for innovation but also a global one," IDB president Ilan Goldfajn said during the opening ceremony of a nutritional innovation laboratory.

“It can be the center, a hub, where innovative solutions to global problems emerge, enjoying the country's comparative advantages. Uruguay can boost Latin America and the Caribbean to be part of the solution to the global [economic] slowdown.”

And at a forum on artificial intelligence hosted by the IDB, economy and finance minister Azucena Arbeleche said that AI will facilitate Uruguay's economic development.