Mirage or Real Jobs? Why the Global Data Centre Fever Isn't Convincing Communities |
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The script rarely changes. A big tech company rolls into town with deep pockets, unveiling plans for a vast, resource-hungry data centre campus.
The government rolls out the red carpet, riding on the promise of economic growth, technological advancement and a coveted place on the global data centre map.
For local communities, while employment is often dangled as a main benefit of having a hyperscale facility as a neighbour, it isn’t always delivered.
When Sirlei Souza, 62, heard that a data centre was coming to Brazil’s Eldorado do Sul, promising jobs, she was optimistic.
Brazilian-based Scala Data Centers had said they would be building “AI City”, touted as the largest data centre in Latin America, just 2.5 miles from her village. Scala Data Centers is headquartered in Brazil and was founded by US global digital infrastructure investment firm DigitalBridge.
Eldorado residents are still struggling to recover from devastating floods that hit the region in 2024, which damaged their fields, drowned livestock and destroyed 81% of the houses and local businesses. The municipality was among the most heavily affected in the region.
“People were very happy with news of the data centre because many of them needed to leave the region to work in other places,” said Souza, a community leader in Guaíba City, a rural village.
Residents also hoped the data centre project would bring new infrastructure to the region, improve its crumbling roads and........