Alibaba Cloud switched on its first cloud region in Brazil on Thursday, while the company still has not secured the bulk of the power it wants for AI, with 30MW to 70MW still under negotiation with data center providers.

The Brazil region gives local businesses a China-backed alternative to US hyperscalers, and adds another foothold for Alibaba Cloud in a market where cloud customers are also weighing latency, data governance, and the availability of local infrastructure.

The request for proposals covered three sites at 4MW each

The launch includes two availability zones. The Brazil location is Alibaba Cloud’s second cloud region in Latin America, following a Mexico facility that opened in February 2025.

Alibaba said it now operates 106 availability zones across 31 regions worldwide. The company confirmed that figure on Thursday.

Industry sources said Alibaba issued a request for proposals for three sites, each with 4MW of capacity.

One source said loads totaling 30MW to 70MW were still “on the market,” meaning no provider has signed for them yet.

Some of the live capacity could be located in facilities operated by Ascenty in the interior of São Paulo state. Ascenty did not confirm that.

🚀 Alibaba Cloud is now in Brazil. We’ve launched our first cloud region in Brazil to accelerate cloud and AI transformation. With the new data centers, local infrastructure delivers secure, resilient and scalable cloud services with low latency and data governance for Brazilian… pic.twitter.com/4p9mbpNp3W — Alibaba Cloud (@alibaba_cloud) August 27, 2026

🚀 Alibaba Cloud is now in Brazil.

We’ve launched our first cloud region in Brazil to accelerate cloud and AI transformation. With the new data centers, local infrastructure delivers secure, resilient and scalable cloud services with low latency and data governance for Brazilian… pic.twitter.com/4p9mbpNp3W

— Alibaba Cloud (@alibaba_cloud) August 27, 2026

Profit fell 76% while capital spending jumped 75%

Alibaba is offering more than servers in Brazil. The region includes what the company describes as enterprise-grade “agentic AI services.”

That portfolio includes database automation, threat response, and isolated sandboxes designed to run AI agents at scale, which makes the region relevant not just for infrastructure buyers but for companies trying to deploy managed AI tools within local compliance and operational requirements.

Brazilian technology provider Insi has signed on to help mid-sized and large companies with migration. Open-source specialist 4Linux is close to finalizing a deal to pair Alibaba’s Qwen models with deployment and training services. Alibaba said it is targeting e-commerce, fintech, and AI-native startups.

“Brazil is one of the world’s most dynamic digital economies and a new market central to Alibaba Cloud’s expansion in Latin America,” said Allen Guo, the company’s general manager for Latin America and a vice-president of international business.

The Alibaba Cloud account on X said the region was built to “accelerate cloud and AI transformation” for customers in Brazil.

The Brazil expansion comes as the US and China compete for AI market share in emerging economies, making local region launches a way for cloud providers to translate that competition into on-the-ground capacity. Alibaba has projected $53 billion for global cloud and AI infrastructure spending. It is part of a stated goal to reach $100 billion in combined cloud and AI revenue within five years.

Alibaba’s quarterly profit plunged 76% to 10.54 billion yuan, or $1.55 billion, in the three months to June 30, even as revenue rose 9%. Capital spending on AI jumped 75%, Cryptopolitan reported.

In the same quarter, cloud revenue increased 45%.