From Destruction to Speculation

The Intercept Brasil visited Eldorado do Sul, one of the municipalities most affected by the May 2024 floodings in Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. More than 80% of homes were impacted. Less than an year later, this same municipality was chosen to host the first AI data center city in Brazil, a USD $500 million project by Scala Data Centers.

This investigation looks at how data center companies, backed by foreign funds and big tech companies as clients, are working to avoid regulation at the local and federal levels. In parallel, the project also looks at the environmental cost of such infrastructure when regulatory safeguards are removed, particularly in regions that are already bearing the brunt of extreme climate impacts like Rio Grande do Sul.