عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Technology

Google to Open Second Data Center in Latin America, to Invest Over $850 Mln 

The president of Google Cloud for Latin America, Eduardo Lopez, participates in the inauguration of the Google Data Center works, on the premises of the Science Park, in Canelones, Uruguay 29 August 2024. (EPA)
The president of Google Cloud for Latin America, Eduardo Lopez, participates in the inauguration of the Google Data Center works, on the premises of the Science Park, in Canelones, Uruguay 29 August 2024. (EPA)
TT
TT

Google to Open Second Data Center in Latin America, to Invest Over $850 Mln 

The president of Google Cloud for Latin America, Eduardo Lopez, participates in the inauguration of the Google Data Center works, on the premises of the Science Park, in Canelones, Uruguay 29 August 2024. (EPA)
The president of Google Cloud for Latin America, Eduardo Lopez, participates in the inauguration of the Google Data Center works, on the premises of the Science Park, in Canelones, Uruguay 29 August 2024. (EPA)

Alphabet's Google said on Thursday it will open its second data center in Latin America in the Uruguayan city of Canelones and invest more than $850 million in it.

Google opened its first data center in Latin America in Quilicura, which is near Santiago, the capital city of Chile, in 2015. It invested an initial amount of $150 million in the data center and spent an additional $140 million in 2018 for expansion.

"We hope our new data center in Canelones will be a significant contribution to the professional and technological development of Uruguay and the entire region," Google said in a blog post.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Google is considering building a "hyperscale" data center close to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and that the center would be ready in 2027.

In April, Google announced a $3 billion investment to set up a data center campus in Indiana and expand sites in Virginia. Google also said in May that it will invest $2 billion in Malaysia to develop its first data center and Google Cloud region in the country.

Most Viewed

 
 
Technology

Nations Building Their Own AI Models Add to Nvidia's Growing Chip Demand

FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration, taken June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration, taken June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
TT
TT

Nations Building Their Own AI Models Add to Nvidia's Growing Chip Demand

FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration, taken June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand miniature in this illustration, taken June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Nations building artificial intelligence models in their own languages are turning to Nvidia's chips, adding to already booming demand as generative AI takes center stage for businesses and governments, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
Nvidia's third-quarter forecast for rising sales of its chips that power AI technology such as OpenAI's ChatGPT failed to meet investors' towering expectations. But the company described new customers coming from around the world, including governments that are now seeking their own AI models and the hardware to support them, Reuters said.
Countries adopting their own AI applications and models will contribute about low double-digit billions to Nvidia's revenue in the financial year ending in January 2025, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said on a call with analysts after Nvidia's earnings report.
That's up from an earlier forecast of such sales contributing high single-digit billions to total revenue. Nvidia forecast about $32.5 billion in total revenue in the third quarter ending in October.
"Countries around the world (desire) to have their own generative AI that would be able to incorporate their own language, incorporate their own culture, incorporate their own data in that country," Kress said, describing AI expertise and infrastructure as "national imperatives."
She offered the example of Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, which is building an AI supercomputer featuring thousands of Nvidia H200 graphics processors.
Governments are also turning to AI as a measure to strengthen national security.
"AI models are trained on data and for political entities -particularly nations - their data are secret and their models need to be customized to their unique political, economic, cultural, and scientific needs," said IDC computing semiconductors analyst Shane Rau.
"Therefore, they need to have their own AI models and a custom underlying arrangement of hardware and software."
Washington tightened its controls on exports of cutting-edge chips to China in 2023 as it sought to prevent breakthroughs in AI that would aid China's military, hampering Nvidia's sales in the region.
Businesses have been working to tap into government pushes to build AI platforms in regional languages.
IBM said in May that Saudi Arabia's Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority would train its "ALLaM" Arabic language model using the company's AI platform Watsonx.
Nations that want to create their own AI models can drive growth opportunities for Nvidia's GPUs, on top of the significant investments in the company's hardware from large cloud providers like Microsoft, said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.