Compete With Amazon.com, Google Cloud Builds Technical Infrastructure In Brazil With IDR 45.1 Trillion Investment

Fabio Coelho, President of Google Cloud Brazil.(photo: @GoogleCloud_BR )

JAKARTA - Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud subsidiary announced on Tuesday, June 14 that it has invested 1.6 billion reais (IDR 45.1 trillion) in technical infrastructure since 2017 in Brazil, as well as the opening of a new office and technical center in the country.

The Google Cloud investment is aimed at "helping enterprise customers diversify their service portfolio, expand their digital capabilities, and drive new business," the company said at a Google for Brazil event in Sao Paulo, the country's financial capital.

"During this (five-year) period, a total of 1.6 billion reais was allocated to upgrade Google Cloud's technical infrastructure in Brazil," a Google source was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Google also announced the opening of a new engineering center in Sao Paulo and a new Google Cloud office in 2023.

In January, Google said it would hire 200 engineers in Brazil this year. This is done because they are constantly striving to improve privacy, security, and anti-abuse content technology.

The 2023 recruitment drive will double the number of engineers currently working in Latin America's largest country with a focus on "local talent" who can create products not only for Brazil, but for the world.

"The investment (in a new engineering center) is another step in Google's plans to expand engineering operations in Brazil. ... This will be the company's second engineering hub in the country," said Google, which has offices in Belo Horizonte since 2006.

Google's investment plans will tighten competition between Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, which has operations in Brazil and in 2020 announced a 1 billion reais (Rp 28.2 trillion) investment in data centers in Sao Paulo.

In February, the Brazilian Space Agency also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with cloud networking unit Amazon.com Inc to promote the long-term development of the country's space program.