Alibaba Cloud switches on Brazil with 30MW to 70MW of AI power still unsigned

Alibaba Cloud switched on its first cloud region in Brazil on Thursday. The company has yet to procure the bulk of the power it wants for AI, with 30MW to 70MW still under negotiation with data center providers.

The region offers a China-backed alternative to US hyperscalers for local businesses.

The request for proposals covered three sites at 4MW each

The launch includes two availability zones. The Brazil location is the company’s second Latin America cloud region, following a Mexico facility that opened in February 2025.

Today, Alibaba operates 106 availability zones in 31 regions around the world. The company confirmed the number Thursday.

Industry sources said Alibaba put out a request for proposals to the market for three sites, each of 4MW.

One source said loads of 30MW to 70MW were still “on the market,” meaning no provider has yet signed for them.

Some of the live capacity could be in facilities operated by Ascenty in the interior of São Paulo state. Ascenty did not confirm it.

🚀 Alibaba Cloud is now in Brazil.

We’ve launched our first cloud region in Brazil to accelerate cloud and AI transformation. With the new data centers, local infrastructure delivers secure, resilient and scalable cloud services with low latency and data governance for Brazilian… pic.twitter.com/4p9mbpNp3W

— Alibaba Cloud (@alibaba_cloud) August 27, 2026

Profit fell 76% while capital spending leapt 75%

Alibaba is selling more than just servers. The Brazil region offers what the company calls enterprise-grade “agentic AI services.”

The portfolio includes database automation, threat response, and isolated sandboxes to operate AI agents at scale.

Brazilian technology provider Insi has signed up to assist mid-sized and large firms looking to migrate.

Open-source specialist 4Linux is close to nailing down a deal to pair Alibaba’s Qwen models with deployment and training services. Alibaba said it is targeting e-commerce, fintech, and AI-native startups.

“Brazil is one of the world’s most dynamic digital economies and a new market central to Alibaba Cloud’s expansion in Latin America,” said Allen Guo, the company’s general manager for Latin America and a vice-president of international business.

The Alibaba Cloud account on X said the region was built to “accelerate cloud and AI transformation” for customers in Brazil.

The Brazil push comes as the US and China vie for a share of the AI market in emerging economies. Alibaba predicts $53 billion for global cloud and AI infrastructure spending.

It is part of a stated goal to attain $100 billion in combined cloud and AI revenue within five years.

Alibaba’s quarterly profit plunged 76% to 10.54 billion yuan, or $1.55 billion, in the three months to June 30 even as revenue grew 9%. Capital spending on AI leapt 75%, Cryptopolitan reported.

In the same quarter, cloud revenue increased 45%.

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