São Paulo to Host $600 Million Exascale Supercomputer in Campinas

The government of the State of São Paulo has confirmed plans to invest approximately R$3 billion ($600 million) in the construction of a 1-exaflop supercomputer in the city of Campinas.

According to an exclusive interview with Correio Popular, the announcement was made by São Paulo’s Secretary of Partnerships and Investments, Rafael Benini.

The project, which was highlighted by Campinas Mayor Dário Saadi back in May 2026, is now in the technical definition phase and will then go through public hearings, followed by the launch of a public bidding process under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 2028.

The project is part of the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA) and has an estimated investment of R$3 billion ($600 million).

The equipment will have a capacity of 1 exaflop, meaning it can perform 1 quintillion operations per second, similar to other exascale computers currently in operation. The project is expected to be one of only six such systems in operation worldwide, with three in the United States and one in Germany, while two other systems with 2 exaflops were recently inaugurated in China.

“The choice of Campinas was due to the fact that the city has infrastructure capable of guaranteeing a supply of 11 megawatts [of electricity] and a large internet connectivity network,” Benini explained. This electricity consumption is equivalent to the consumption of 44,400 homes for one month, representing 10% of the residences in the municipality. A supercomputer is a major consumer of electricity for three main reasons: massive data processing, cooling systems and uninterrupted operation.

According to the Secretary of Partnerships and Investments, the area where the equipment will be installed has not yet been defined, but it will be close to Google’s backbone in the city, an underground network that forms the backbone of the company’s internet infrastructure. These are extremely long-distance, high-performance fiber-optic networks spanning continental distances.

Campinas as a Hub for Technology and Innovation

The Campinas metropolitan region is a national center for innovation and research, hosting renowned educational institutions such as UNICAMP, ranked third in Latin America, and PUC-Campinas. The region is also home to innovation centers such as INOVA and has recently seen a boom in investment and data-center capacity, with 150 MW currently under construction from companies such as Ascenty, Scala Data Centers and TIP Brasil.

São Paulo Secretary of Partnerships and Investments Rafael Benini also highlighted the region’s ecosystem of science, technology, research and companies with the potential to benefit from the use of the supercomputer.

He cited as examples Sirius, the only fourth-generation synchrotron light laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere, and Orion, a maximum-biosafety (NB4) laboratory under construction and the only one in the world connected to a synchrotron light source.

Both are located at the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), the largest scientific complex in the country, located in Campinas. The center currently uses the Santos Dumont supercomputer, with a capacity of 20 petaflops.

Pégaso is currently the most powerful supercomputer in operation in Brazil, with a capacity of 21 petaflops. Operated by Petrobras, the state-owned oil company uses the supercomputer for deepwater exploration and for monitoring oil and gas operations.

The new supercomputer to be installed in Campinas will be approximately 50 times more powerful than Pégaso.

Investment for Technological Sovereignty

The scale of the planned investment is also expected to strengthen Brazil’s technological sovereignty by expanding the country’s capacity to process large volumes of data and develop advanced artificial intelligence and scientific applications domestically.

“This project will guarantee technological sovereignty for Brazil, the State of São Paulo and Campinas,” said the Secretary of Partnerships and Investments.

According to him, the PPP model will allow the state government to use 30% of the equipment’s capacity, while the other 70% will be leased to the private sector.

“This model will guarantee the viability of the project and attract partners interested in the installation,” Benini said.

Government Looks to Use Its Capacity to Power Government Operations in Tech

The supercomputer is expected to centralize the state’s entire computing demand, increasing cybersecurity by allowing data to remain in the country and eliminating or reducing the need for the current outsourcing of data-center capacity.

This position was backed by the federal government, which in May supported the project through a joint effort by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, led by Luciana Santos; the Chief of Staff’s Office (Casa Civil), under Miriam Belchior; and the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, led by Esther Dweck. They highlighted the importance of digital sovereignty and the digitalization of Brazilian government services.

Among the applications for the public sector are artificial intelligence, climate forecasting, drug development and complex simulations. Applications will also include security, mobility and defense.

One of them will be the processing of images from Muralha Paulista, which integrates municipal monitoring cameras into the state system. Through the use of artificial intelligence, the system enables facial recognition and vehicle license-plate reading.