Lula pledges a Brazilian AI, data centers, and more math

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in his first speech after being re-elected, said he wants Brazil to build its own artificial intelligence, to draw data centers with renewable energy, and to teach more mathematics and engineering. Agência Brasil published that account at 23:35 on October 25, 2026. G1 published its account at 02:07 on October 26. Both place the speech in São Paulo on October 25, after the result. G1 says it was at a hotel, after the Superior Electoral Court confirmed the result. Neither report prints a bill, a budget, or a start date for the technology pledges.

Agência Brasil says that, with 100 percent of ballot boxes counted, Lula recorded more than 64.2 million votes, 51.79 percent of valid votes. G1 also reports 51.79 percent. The quotations below are English translations of the Portuguese those outlets printed. They are this desk’s translations of those reports, and the Portuguese on the two pages is the source text.

What the two reports quote on AI and data centers

Agência Brasil says Lula wants the digital economy to be one axis of the new government, and that he promised to use renewable-energy potential to attract data centers and to create a Brazilian artificial intelligence. It quotes him:

“We have to take advantage of the energy potential of a country that perhaps has the most renewable-energy capacity, to bring the data centers needed to accumulate data in Brazil. And those people are going to have to leave a part of the data centers for Brazilian information.”

On schooling, Agência Brasil says he promised full-day school through the end of secondary school, a stronger Pé-de-Meia program for secondary students, and an expansion of that program to university students. It says he promised more exact sciences so Brazil would have what the outlet calls sovereignty in artificial intelligence, and it quotes him:

“We want to teach more mathematics, more engineering, because I do not want to keep depending on Chinese and American artificial intelligence. I want to create a Brazilian one.”

The words in brackets in the outlet’s Portuguese, “inteligência artificial,” are the outlet’s insertion, not extra words in the spoken sentence as printed.

G1’s quotation runs the schooling line and the data-center line together:

“We will teach more mathematics, more engineering, because I do not want to keep depending on Chinese or American artificial intelligence. I want to create a Brazilian one. We have to take advantage of the energy potential of a country that perhaps has the greatest capacity for renewable energy, to bring here the data centers needed to accumulate our data for Brazil as well.”

The two quotations are close. They are not the same transcript. Agência Brasil’s data-center sentence adds that “those people” will have to leave a part of the data centers for Brazilian information. G1’s sentence says the data centers are for accumulating “our data” for Brazil as well. Neither sentence states a percentage of capacity, a tax, or a contract term.

What the reports do not contain

Agência Brasil says he promised investment in the digital economy, education, the environment, and modernization of the public health system. This story is about the artificial-intelligence, data-center, and schooling lines. The reports do not name a lab, a model, a company that has agreed to build a data center, or a sum of money for any of those lines. They do not say Congress has voted a program. They do not say an existing Brazilian model will be adopted as the national system. “Create a Brazilian one” is his stated aim in the speech, as the two outlets quote it.

Why it matters (analysis)

The speech is a set of intentions from a president who has just been re-elected, reported by the public news agency and by G1. A pledge to teach more mathematics and to attract data centers is not, on these pages, a funded project. The line about leaving “a part” of data centers for Brazilian information is a condition he says he wants from whoever brings the facilities. The pages do not define the part, or the enforcement. Readers who need the statute, if one is later introduced, will need that bill. It is not in these two articles.

This report is not legal, tax, or investment advice, and it is not a forecast that the pledges will be enacted as described.

Related reporting: China’s 18 tasks on employment-friendly AI and the UK package that lists AI security funding ahead of the Budget.

This report is not legal, financial, or health advice. See the disclaimer.