The Brazilian government recently committed R$2.3 billion to purchase two massive artificial intelligence supercomputers. However, this heavy tech investment completely ignores the reality of the country’s broken digital foundation. Currently, only 33 percent of Brazilian public schools have functioning computer labs.
Brazil is about to spend R$2.3 billion on two AI supercomputers, while computer labs reach only 33% of public schools and the new Redata tax break for datacenter equipment explicitly excludes small and micro businesses. +
— Yaso (@yaso) November 12, 2026
Furthermore, Brazil’s new Redata tax incentive excludes micro and small businesses, leaving major data centre operators such as Ascenty, ODATA and Scala Data Centers better positioned to benefit.
Online commentators quickly criticized the government’s priorities. On X, Lucas argued that Brazilian politicians constantly try to skip basic development steps, noting the absurdity of buying advanced supercomputers when most public school students graduate without knowing basic keyboard shortcuts due to a complete lack of computer classes.
@yaso Não adianta, o Brasil sempre quer pular todas as etapas. Brasileirinho médio hoje se forma sem sequer saber o que um ctrl+z faz pq não tem aula de informática, mas o governo acha que a solução é meter dinheiro em supercomputador de IA.
— Lucas (@elgran_lucaum) November 12, 2026
Taking a more financial perspective, the founder of BotBot Robotics on X, Nicholas, pointed out that while the budget sounds massive locally, half a billion dollars is actually a tiny drop in the ocean in the modern tech industry.
@yaso U$500mm in the today’s AI world is very little in the grand scheme of things.
— Nicolas de Camaret (@deCamaret) November 12, 2026
Also, Owal viewed the massive purchase as a calculated, biased move designed to crush local data sovereignty and keep digital power tightly controlled by the state.
Isso aqui é um gasto extremamente enviesado pra suprimir nossa soberania de dados
— owal (@OOOwal) November 12, 2026
READ ALSO: Brazilian Olympic Committee Partners With Cardano to Bring Blockchain and AI to Sports
Excluding small businesses from tax breaks limits local innovation
In emerging markets, the digital economy is built by independent developers, small tech startups, and local hardware repair shops. These micro-businesses keep older computers running, teach communities how to code, and build software that solves local neighborhood problems.
By excluding these small businesses from tax relief, the state actively limits grassroots innovation. It forces the country to rely entirely on slow-moving monopolies to build digital infrastructure.
When politicians fund giant corporate hardware purchases while actively taxing the small businesses trying to build local software, they ensure the working class remains permanent consumers of technology rather than creators.
How crypto networks could protect data sovereignty from government control
The fear that a government supercomputer will suppress data sovereignty shows why the cryptocurrency industry is actively moving away from centralized hardware. When a state or a single corporation owns the physical data centre, they hold absolute power over the information inside it.
They dictate which researchers are allowed to use the processing power, they can monitor the data being created, and they can shut off access to political opponents with a single click. Centralized hardware always leads to centralized control.
The Web3 ecosystem solves this through Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, commonly called DePIN. Instead of relying on a government to buy one giant machine, crypto networks allow everyday citizens and small businesses to connect their own computers together over the blockchain. This creates a massive, global supercomputer owned by the public.
If a small startup is blocked from using the government’s servers, they do not have to close their business. They use digital tokens to rent processing power directly from the decentralized network. Because the network is spread across thousands of independent machines worldwide, no single government can control the data, change the rules, or pull the plug. Cryptocurrency turns computing power into a free market commodity, ensuring that true data sovereignty remains in the hands of the people, completely out of reach of biased state spending.
Meanwhile, Brazilian Finance Minister Dario Durigan announced that the government will offer specialized business loans to help companies manage the financial strain of two massive economic overhauls.
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