Brazil's government unveiled plans to position the country as a major global hub for artificial intelligence data processing and storage, just as Brazilian and multinational companies race to automate their logistics networks in a sign of the country's broader digital transformation ambitions.

Communications Minister Frederico de Siqueira Filho, speaking at the Digital Future Seminar in Brasília on April 9, declared that making Brazil a benchmark for AI infrastructure was a central pillar of the government's revised National Digital Transformation Strategy, whose public consultation phase concluded this week, Convergencia Digital reported.

"We believe that Brazil will be the major hub for data processing and storage technologies to run artificial intelligence," the minister said, adding that a key challenge was developing large language models (LLMs) adapted to the Portuguese language, with potential reach across Latin America and other Portuguese-speaking nations.

Siqueira Filho said Brazil needed to build robust technological foundations combining network expansion, data centre construction and adequate financing, noting the government was in talks with several international development banks to support digital infrastructure investment.

He also highlighted the reactivation of the Universal Telecommunications Services Fund (FUST), which has already approved more than BRL4.0bn ($796mn) for fibre expansion and data centre projects, as reported by Convergencia Digital and Plantão News.

The minister floated plans for new 5G spectrum auctions and connectivity policies along federal highways, while stressing the importance of extending digital access to Brazil's most remote regions.

"It's one thing to generate, store, and process data in large centres. It's quite another to do this in the nooks and crannies of Brazil, and that is our mission," he said.

The government push comes as Brazil's private sector accelerates its own digital overhaul. Consumer goods giant Unilever is investing BRL145mn (around $29mn) between 2025 and 2026 to expand, modernise and automate its Brazilian distribution network, with the goal of increasing capacity by 40% to reach 280,000 pallet positions by year-end, according to Valor.

The centrepiece of that investment is a new flagship hub in São Paulo, which logistics director João Nascimento described as a future global benchmark for automation, deploying technology including 4D shuttle vehicles, robotics, autonomous vehicles and AI-driven systems.

Unilever expects the automated centre to cut product separation and loading times by around 60%.

Management and Innovation Minister Esther Dweck said digital sovereignty was now a cross-cutting priority across all federal ministries, with the government's GOV.BR platform already serving as Brazil's digital identity infrastructure with over 175mn registered accounts.

She added that the ultimate aim is to build a "government for every person" model that allows services to be adapted to individual needs while guaranteeing data protection and citizens' privacy.