Reviled in the U.S., data centers win support in Brazil’s presidential election

ByteDance’s data center under construction at the Pecem Industrial and Port Complex in Ceara, Brazil, in May | BLOOMBERG

Sep 2, 2026

Data centers have become politically toxic in the U.S. midterm election campaign. Not in Brazil’s presidential race.

Ahead of the country’s October vote, both Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro are making multibillion-dollar data centers and the artificial intelligence investment that comes with them central to their pitches to bolster Latin America’s largest economy.

It’s a sharp contrast with the U.S., where voter anger over electricity bills and water use is putting politicians on the defensive even in data-center strongholds such as Virginia and Texas.

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