FROM THE BOOM OF DATA CENTERS

Receiving billionaire investments in data centers has become almost obsessed with mayors in Brazil. Without a doubt, with the exponential growth of the use of the internet and its tools, including artificial intelligence, the expansion of the infrastructure that processes trillions of data in the cloud is a must of our era. If the data centers that store and process this data are not expanded, and so is the indispensable infrastructure, the world simply stops. Not only TikTok, but Pix, banking and commercial transactions, air traffic and everything else. We are not only in the dark, but we returned to the era of writing letters, as well described in his novel "La Silla del Águila", the eagle's chair, the Mexican Carlos Fuentes, more than 30 years ago.

Investments in data centers, according to the McKinsey consultancy, add up to 7 trillion dollars worldwide by 2030. Most of these investments will be in the United States, Europe and China. But they will also be made in countries like Brazil. The basic characteristic of data centers is the use of sophisticated processing equipment, which few produce, extensive use of energy and water. A data center like the one TikTok built in Ceará will consume daily water equal to 2.2 million people. A small center that consumes 50 MW of electricity could supply a city of 50,000 inhabitants. In other words, to have data centers we need electricity and water. And then the big discussion begins.

Do we have enough energy and enough water? In the effort to obtain the investments, mayors and governors boast of receiving billionaire investments in their area, but the calculations on the tip of the pencil are not well done. First you have to guarantee water and energy for the population. Second, all calculations around the world show that data center facilities, which require energy networks that are generally technically and physically aged, and sometimes distant, increase the price of energy by up to 30%. And the water too. To compensate for this, data centers are not built without a huge package of tax and tax incentives. In Brazil, the legislation that defines rules is underway, REDATA, stopped in the Senate. Most investors are large technology companies, whose bargaining power exceeds that of the states. Ecologists, who add noise to the disadvantages, managed to get 18 US states to ban the installation of data centers.

In Brazil, it is better to have them here, than only in other countries, even if we only participate in the basic investment, because the operation requires little, but qualified, labor. And the calculation must be made, if incentives are given, of what goes back to the state, because what goes back to the investor is clear. It has to have data centers, but with well-calculated reciprocal cost and benefits.