Actis-backed TERRANOVA breaks ground on a liquid-cooled AI campus in Brazil

TERRANOVA, the Actis platform set up in December 2025, has broken ground at Campus Campinas, a data center complex in Campinas, Sao Paulo, built for AI workloads. IREI reported that it will rank among the first sustainable data center developments in Latin America designed for that purpose.

The initial phase is planned for 216 MW of IT capacity. The site has room to expand to 386 MW. Its defining feature is a liquid cooling system on a closed water circuit, a design that cuts electricity consumption and virtually eliminates water use for processor cooling. No data center with liquid cooling is operating in Brazil today, according to IREI. Actis says projects are under development but none running, which will make Campus Campinas the first in the Campinas region to deploy the technology at scale.

The construction start is a concrete sign that institutional private capital is treating Latin America as a new market for AI infrastructure. As this publication has argued, data center demand is pulling real estate investors toward power, land, and cooling, with underwriting that looks more like infrastructure than property. Actis's decision to build a hyperscale platform from scratch in Brazil extends that pattern beyond the usual US and European markets.

"The start of construction represents a historic step for TERRANOVA and for digital infrastructure in Latin America," said Mauricio Giusti, managing director at Actis and interim CEO of TERRANOVA. The design matches the pitch: liquid cooling that draws less power and nearly no water is the specification AI operators are asking for. Being first to run it at scale in Campinas may help TERRANOVA sign tenants, but the evidence will be in the campus's water and electricity bills once the first halls fill.