South America nearing 600MW in datacenter capacity under construction

The South American datacenter colocation market has over 596MW of capacity under construction, with a further 1.91GW planned for the coming years, according to estimates by real estate consultancy JLL.

The figures refer to the three main markets in the region – Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Overall, the trio is expected to reach a volume of 972MW delivered in 2024, JLL forecasts in a report.

Combined, the three markets have seen a 20% CAGR in capacity since 2018, reaching 654MW of delivered inventory as of today, with Brazil accounting for 450MW, according to the report.

Next comes Chile, with 142MW in operational datacenter capacity in the Santiago metropolitan region, and Colombia with 48MW in the Bogotá area, estimates JLL.

Colombia is still in its early days, but several new investments are underway for that market. 

BNamericas has learned that a major Latin American datacenter company will announce this week a substantial new investment for the country, which is expected to add nearly 150MW in planned capacity for Greater Bogotá.

In Brazil, the biggest hub is São Paulo, with 359MW in operational IT capacity, encompassing the cities of Barueri and Campinas, estimates JLL. 

It is followed by Rio de Janeiro (58MW), Fortaleza and Porto Alegre, each with 12MW, and then Brasília (9MW).

Last week, Tecto, the newly created subsidiary of Brazil’s V.tal, announced the start of construction of a new datacenter in Fortaleza. The so-called Mega Lobster project is set to add a further 20MW in capacity in the city.

In June, Scala Data Centers also broke ground on a facility in Fortaleza. The project entails 20.7MW of IT capacity after all its phases. 

In Porto Alegre, Scala announced last month a 54MW datacenter campus in Porto Alegre, potentially reaching 4.75GW over the course of a decade.

In Chile, JLL estimates 258MW to be in the planning phase, mostly around Santiago. 

Among the latest projects announced are Scala's expansion. Last month, the Scala Huechuraba datacenter expansion (US$145mn) was presented for environmental evaluation, as BNamericas reported. 

(Source: JLL)

HYPERSCALERS

In all three markets, demand from Microsoft, AWS and Google, among others, is driving the segment.

According to JLL, the region’s main colocation players by capacity delivered, under construction and planned are, in order, Scala, Odata, Ascenty, Elea and Equinix.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle and Meta are the main hyperscale customers.

“Demand from hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google is driving the expansion of local companies like Odata, Ascenty, and Scala into other secondary markets. Currently, most of the colocation demand comes from these large companies,” says the report.

The report also has a chapter dedicated to energy and notes that South America emerges as a promising datacenter investment alternative worldwide for its abundance of natural resources and potential for clean energy.

For now, South America “hosts only a modest fraction of the global data processing infrastructure, representing about 5% of the world’s datacenters,” says the report.

The full study can be seen here.