Fortaleza – the innovation hub of Brazil

Ceará has a lot of constant and abundant wind, which gives it a competitive advantage onshore and offshore to produce electric power, also playing a leading role in Ceará’s development of Green Hydrogen, Ceará’s economic development secretary João Salmito Filho stated that they have 24 Green Hydrogen MOUs signed to date, which together are equivalent to US$50bn in investments.      

Fortaleza has 16 submarine cables, making it the one of the cities with the largest number of submarine cable connections in the world, handling over 90% of Brazil’s internet traffic. The state of Ceará is already a hub for data centres, It has attracted investments from key players like Scala Data Centres, Casa dos Ventos, V.tal, Angola Cables, Brisanet and more) . The digitalisation of Brazil, accelerated by the pandemic, has allowed for Fortaleza to emerge as a beacon of connectivity, serving different regions with relatively low latencies, connecting Brazil, North America and Africa.  

Fortaleza is also home to over 16,000 tech talents, and many startups. According to information from the Ceará Economic and Employment Department (SEDET), six tech giants are currently in negotiations with the regional government. All wish to expand their operations in the state. 

They include Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Ascenty and Scala. “The outlook is very positive,” said Adalberto Pessoa, an advisor to SEDET. “The demand for digital transformation has grown exponentially, leading to the need for more connectivity and technological infrastructure.” 

As Fortaleza’s reputation as a Connectivity powerhouse is undeniably cemented in Brazil and the world stage and talks of new investments are announced regularly, it will be fascinating to watch the city develop in the next few years.