ByteDance's Brazil-facing site would fall outside Pecém's export-only rule, and Brazil's server tax-break regulations, expected the week of November 16, will say which equipment qualifies.
ByteDance is weighing a second phase of its data center project at the Port of Pecém in Ceará state, in northeastern Brazil, and is looking for a developer to build it, Bloomberg News reported on November 6, citing people familiar with the matter. The expansion would be larger than the 300-megawatt project now under construction there. ByteDance has also held early talks with developers about a separate, similar-sized data center outside the port that would serve Brazilian customers, according to the version of the report carried by Energy Connects and summarized by TechNode on November 9.
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment. The reports name no developer, no capacity for the new phase and no timetable.
For anyone tracking Chinese cloud and AI infrastructure abroad, the second site matters most. Bloomberg says the Pecém data centers receive tax breaks for exporting data and must export it to qualify, which is why a facility aimed at Brazilian customers would sit outside the port.
Phase one is a US$10 billion build with a Pátria-backed developer
Bloomberg puts the project under construction at US$10 billion and 300 megawatts. Exame adds that the 300 megawatts is near total power demand, of which 200 megawatts is for servers, and that the site sits in an export processing zone approved only to serve foreign markets. Construction began in January 2026. Omnia, the data center platform of Pátria Investimentos, is developing the project with the renewable power producer Casa dos Ventos, and Omnia has told Reuters it expects operations to start in the third quarter of 2027, according to Exame, which also reports a ramp-up through 2029.
The headline investment figures differ by scope. Bloomberg says ByteDance announced last year a 200 billion reais (US$36 billion) investment for the full Pecém complex, to be built in phases. O Povo reported in January that ByteDance plans five data centers at Pecém and that projected investment in the wider hub had risen to 571 billion reais.
Earlier reporting hinted at the scale. Reuters reported in April 2025 that initial talks centered on 300 megawatts with a possible second phase of 900 megawatts, and that total demand could approach one gigawatt. ByteDance intends to expand the campus well beyond its initial size, Diário do Nordeste reported in May, adding that the first 200 megawatts are fully contracted by ByteDance and split across 20 data halls in two buildings. Cargo planes carrying equipment from China are due from April 2027.
Brazil’s tax break rules and a lawsuit shape where the next capacity goes
The domestic market is the prize for a Brazil-facing site. Industry group Brasscom says Brazil’s data center capacity has more than doubled since 2022 to over one gigawatt and expects about 20 percent annual growth through 2031, which would nearly triple the 2025 level, Bloomberg reported. Brasscom president Affonso Nina called Pecém "a prime location."
A Brazil-facing facility outside the port would not carry the export-only condition that applies to the data centers inside the Pecém zone. Whether it gets tax relief on equipment is a separate question. Bloomberg reports that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed tax breaks on imported data center equipment in September, cutting the tax burden on servers, processors and networking gear by about a third, but the industry is still waiting for regulations that list the qualifying products. Exame names the federal regime Redata and reports that its conditions include water-efficiency criteria and offering at least 10 percent of the benefited capacity to the domestic market, a share that can be replaced by extra research and innovation investment. Chief of Staff Miriam Belchior said on November 6 that the government expects to publish the regulations during the week of November 16.
Two obstacles are on the record. Bruna de Barros Correia of the law firm BMA Advogados told Bloomberg that Brazil’s transmission grid "can’t accommodate all the power plants seeking to connect to the system." And in September, federal prosecutors and the federal public defender filed a civil action seeking to halt operations at phase one until the Anacé Indigenous people are consulted and an environmental impact study is completed, Exame reported. Omnia says it holds valid permits issued through the Ceará state environmental agency, Semace.
The Redata rules and a developer choice are the next markers
Power supply for phase one is already contracted. The Next Web, citing Reuters, reported in May that Omnia and Casa dos Ventos signed a power agreement worth roughly US$2 billion, and noted that ByteDance has not publicly confirmed its role as anchor tenant, although Brazilian government representatives and Reuters sources have.
Three developments would show how far the plan has moved. The first is the Redata regulations expected in the week of November 16, which will say whether servers for a Brazil-facing data center qualify for the tax cut. The second is whether ByteDance names a developer for the second Pecém phase, and whether that is Omnia, which is already building phase one. The third is the court case over consultation and environmental review. Meanwhile, rival Chinese cloud operators are also adding Brazil capacity: EastFrontier reported in August that Alibaba Cloud opened its first Brazilian region.