LatAm List – Chile’s president Sebastian Piñera announced earlier this month that Google would be expanding its sole Latin American data center to help Chile transition to a tech-based economy. Google will invest US$140M to triple the size of its data center, creating 1000 construction jobs and 120 permanent positions.
Google announced the data center in 2012 and completed the building in 2015. The center has run completely on solar power since 2017. Google claims the center helped them develop capacity in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
Chile is emphasizing the digital economy to help them transition away from a dependence on copper.
“What we have to decide is which side are we going to be on: where the new works of the future are created, or where the old works of the past are destroyed,” said President Piñera.
Read more in Reuters.