Brazil announces ~$444.2M in AI investments split between US and Chinese companies, including ~$250.3M for a supercomputing project with Huawei and iFlytek (Marcela Ayres/Reuters)

Brazil's government has announced investments of about 2.3 billion reais, equivalent to $444.2 million, to bolster its artificial intelligence ecosystem. The funds will be split between US and Chinese companies.

A significant portion, 1.3 billion reais, or approximately $250.3 million, will be used for a supercomputing infrastructure project in Rio de Janeiro. This project will be developed in partnership with China's Huawei Technologies and iFlytek. According to Investing.com, the infrastructure will primarily be used to develop large language models for general and sector-specific applications.

An additional 1 billion reais will be allocated through a tender for a supercomputer that Brazil expects to rank among the world's 10 most powerful AI processing machines. The machine will be installed in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. According to Investing.com, government officials expect US chipmaker Nvidia to win the tender, with Science and Technology Minister Luciana Santos previously anticipating Nvidia as the supplier.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Investing.com — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.