Latin America’s Data Center Gold Rush Comes With Some Big Risks
The region is in a good position to attract key digital infrastructure investments. But it needs to balance tech giants’ insatiable demands for energy and resources with the needs of host communities and their natural environment.
Chile is discovering that data centers like to drink.
Photographer: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images
From Querétaro to Valparaíso, a digital revolution is quietly unfolding across Latin America.
The region is capturing unprecedented investments for the construction of data centers, the physical facilities that house servers, networks and data storage units to run applications and other digital services. Despite its political and economic upheavals, Latin America offers important advantages for these capital-intensive projects, including abundant renewable energy and natural resources such as metals and rare earths, a skilled local workforce and, in some cases, favorable jurisdictions or even tax incentives.