By Ana Paula Lobo – Convergência Digital

Brazil will also participate in the development of chips based on the open RISC-V architecture to reduce dependence on technologies controlled by a small number of companies or countries.

Rio de Janeiro lost the federal government’s AI supercomputer project to Rio Grande do Norte, but will receive a smaller-scale supercomputing infrastructure developed by the National Education and Research Network (RNP), in partnership with Huawei and iFlytek. The initiative will expand the country’s available processing capacity and includes technology transfer, research and development partnerships, professional training, and the development of a sovereign software stack.

The initiative includes the development of a national large language model (LLM) and artificial intelligence models in Portuguese, enabling the creation of solutions better suited to the Brazilian language, data, and needs. The investment is estimated at R$ 1.276 billion over five years, with operations expected to begin in July 2027.

The proposal also includes training 3,000 Brazilians over five years. The partnership’s commitments cover technology transfer, professional training, and research and development.

Chips based on an open architecture

The government also announced Brazil’s participation in the international effort to develop chips based on the open RISC-V architecture, which expands opportunities for technological development and reduces dependence on proprietary architectures. The initiative is a long-term strategy, with a 10- to 15-year horizon, aimed at strengthening Brazil’s chip development capabilities and reducing dependence on technologies controlled by a small number of companies or countries.

The initiative will be based on the RISC-V architecture, an open, non-proprietary technology that allows components to be developed and adapted without relying exclusively on closed architectures. The project will be carried out in cooperation with Barcelona’s innovation ecosystem in Spain and aims to strengthen Brazil’s expertise in critical technologies for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. In Brazil, the partner will be Instituto Eldorado, based in São Paulo.