Chinese tech giants Huawei Technologies and ByteDance are planning major investments in Brazils cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence sectors, moves likely to deepen US concerns over Beijings expanding digital reach in Latin America.
The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Monday that Huawei is set to announce a deal with Dataprev a state-run technology company that manages the countrys social data systems to use its data centres. Huawei is also in talks with Edge UOL, a cloud services arm of Grupo UOL PagSeguro, which also owns Folha.
Executives from Huawei and Edge UOL met in May in Dongguan, China, along with Brazils secretary of digital governance Ricardo Leite and the Huawei Cloud divisions Latin America president Mark Chen.
We want to be the bridge between China and Latin America, Chen said, calling the Brazilian firm a strategic service partner.
Edge UOL Chief Operating Officer Rodrigo Lobo said that the partnership aimed to expand into infrastructure, cybersecurity and AI operations across Brazil.
Rodrigo Lobo of Edge UOL (left) with Mark Chen of Huaweis Cloud division. Photo: Handout The planned expansions come as the United States has stepped up warnings about Chinese investments in critical tech infrastructure across Latin America, citing risks of data theft, surveillance and strategic leverage.
