This work examines the pressing issue of digital sovereignty in Brazil, emphasizing the rapid arrival of Artificial Intelligence data centers as a new form of critical infrastructure. It argues that deploying such facilities requires robust governance, sustainability, and transparency mechanisms, as well as enforceable environmental, social, and technological commitments. It further contends that negotiations with investors must be legally structured, socially fair, and guided by verifiable metrics, ensuring concrete benefits for society—especially for communities directly affected. The paper analyzes the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA) and its conceptual conflict with the Special Taxation Regime for Data Center Services (REDATA), showing that tax incentives alone do not ensure technological sovereignty or the capture of strategic value. Two main contributions are highlighted: (i) the book SABIÁ— Brazilian Sovereignty and Autonomy in Artificial Intelligence—as a guideline to accelerate PBIA implementation through an analytical framework based on verifiable metrics (with emphasis on energy, water, and enforceable governance and transparency clauses); and (ii) the proposal AI Data Centers in Ceará: Strategies for Negotiation, Governance, and Sustainable Development, which identifies a favorable geopolitical window and positions the state to negotiate high-impact social, technological, environmental, and economic commitments, turning the arrival of data centers into a strategic driver of development and sovereignty. As a SABIÁ case study, this proposal was accepted by the Government of Ceará and converted into a new public AI policy, designed to initiate a new development cycle in the state and strengthen both the state’s negotiating capacity and digital sovereignty.
Cavalcanti et al. (Thu,) studied this question.