Petrobras Taps Elea to Build New Data Centre in São Paulo
Elea Data Centers announces that it has won a landmark public bid to design and build a major data centre for Petrobras in São Paulo.
The US$500m contract is the largest IT infrastructure project ever awarded by a Latin American company and further strengthens Elea’s role as a sustainable data centre platform in Brazil.
The 17-year agreement, valued at R$2.3bn (approximately US$500m), will see the development of a 30 megavolt-amperes (MVA) facility designed to host Petrobras’ supercomputers. The centre will process mission-critical scientific workloads across exploration, research and reservoir management while also supporting AI applications.
“Since 2024, we have positioned ourselves as the first infrastructure platform in Brazil and Latin America dedicated to AI because we believe this transformation is essential for the country,” says Alessandro Lombardi, Chairman and Founder of Elea Data Centers.
“Winning the contract with Petrobras is an important milestone and reinforces our commitment to technological leadership in the sector.”
A sustainable data centre for Petrobras
Petrobras made sustainability a central requirement of the project. The new facility will be powered entirely by certified renewable energy and will integrate water reuse systems as part of its advanced cooling infrastructure.
These design features are intended to align with Petrobras’ energy transition commitments and will set new standards for environmentally responsible digital infrastructure in the region.
The 30MVA centre will incorporate liquid cooling technology to manage the extreme density of high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. This approach reduces the energy intensity of cooling and ensures the resilience of supercomputing operations. By applying these technologies at scale, Elea establishes the Petrobras facility as the first of its kind in Latin America.
The data centre will be hosted at Elea’s São Bernardo do Campo campus in the ABC region of São Paulo. The site was selected for its access to robust power transmission infrastructure, making it a strategic location for both performance and efficiency.
A regional milestone in digital infrastructure
This contract builds on Elea’s broader programme of AI-focused infrastructure investments across Brazil.
The company is developing Rio AI City, a next-generation hub for AI and cloud services located in Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Park.
With a projected capacity of up to 3.2GW, Rio AI City is expected to become one of the most ambitious digital infrastructure projects in the region.
The Petrobras data centre complements this initiative by creating capacity for one of the country’s largest enterprises while advancing Brazil’s profile as a hub for AI-ready infrastructure.
The project also demonstrates how sustainability requirements are becoming integrated into large-scale procurement processes for mission-critical facilities.
Consolidating Elea’s leadership
Elea positions itself as both a digital infrastructure provider and a sustainability leader. By focusing on renewable energy, water reuse and efficiency standards, the company aligns data centre growth with environmental goals. This approach ensures compliance with customer expectations while also setting benchmarks for future developments in Latin America.
The Petrobras facility highlights the growing demand for data centres that can handle the scale and complexity of AI, HPC and enterprise workloads. For operators, it shows how sustainability and performance are now inseparable priorities in large-scale contracts.
Alessandro emphasises that the Petrobras win represents a defining step in Elea’s strategy to build an AI-focused data centre platform in Latin America. The project demonstrates how the company intends to combine capacity, sustainability and innovation to meet the rising demands of enterprises and governments across the region.
