Latin America. Google Cloud announced the construction of the second data center located in Latin America. The first is in Chile and now a new one is under construction in Uruguay, with an investment of $850 million dollars. This seeks to support the growth of the company's operations.
This is the analysis carried out by Eduardo López, President of Google Cloud for Latin America:
Every time someone makes a search query, watches a video on YouTube, looks up directions on Google Maps, or uses Gmail for work or school, there's a data center behind the scenes that makes it possible. We live in an era where digital communication and access to information are critical to the growth and development of countries and the people who live in them.
That's why, in 2015, we opened a data center in Chile: to improve the connectivity of our users and the performance of our services. Today, after dedicated planning and analysis, we are taking another step forward with the construction of a second data center in Latin America, this time in Canelones, Uruguay.
We're investing more than $850 million in the new data center, which will provide greater connectivity across the region, help drive development for governments, businesses, and communities, while improving access to the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI). Today's announcement solidifies our commitment to the pillars that have been the foundation of our presence in the region: creating opportunities through digital empowerment, expanding infrastructure to drive economic development, and supporting a more sustainable future.
Creating opportunities through digital skills
Digital skills are critical to generating opportunities for the next generation. Along with programs like Google Career Certificates, we've invested in expanding access to our Google Cloud Skills Boost platform, which offers on-demand training and skill development. As part of this effort, we are already working with more than 550 universities in Latin America to offer a robust and continuously updated portfolio of learning resources to ensure their students are ready to take advantage of the opportunities created by new technologies. As a result, we have awarded more than 35,000 digital skills badges to students and individual developers in Latin America over the past 18 months.
In Uruguay, we are collaborating with local universities such as the Technological University (UTEC) and the University of Montevideo (UM) to incorporate technological content into related courses. And we have worked to promote business and innovation with two startup academies alongside key ecosystem partners in Uruguay: the National Development Agency (ANDE) and the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII).
We hope that our new data center in Canelones will be a significant contribution to the professional and technological development of Uruguay and the entire region. As we begin, and as we do in each of our data center communities, we will continue to invest resources in Data Center Community Impact Programs that harness the full potential of technology, including digital skills trainings and new projects that generate economic and social impact.
Expanding technical infrastructure to boost economic development
Since we have been present in Latin America, we have been investing in technical infrastructure to help people and businesses improve connectivity and access to digital services, including Google products such as Search, Gmail and YouTube and Google Cloud. These investments include submarine cables such as Firmina, Tannat, Curie and Humboldt, the first cable route between South America and Asia-Pacific, as well as Google Cloud regions in São Paulo, Brazil, Santiago de Chile and the future region in Querétaro, Mexico.
Supporting a more sustainable future
At Google, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, including how we design and manage our data centers. Our 28 data centers in 11 countries are among the highest performing, most secure, reliable, and efficient in the world. On average, a data center operated by Google is 1.8 times more energy efficient than a typical data center, and compared to five years ago, we now offer about four times more computing power using the same amount of electrical power.
We have taken global leadership in the fight against climate change through a strong commitment to clean energy. And we are proud to bring this commitment to our new data center in Uruguay, which already uses renewable energy in more than 90% of its energy matrix.
Today marks an important milestone in Google's longstanding commitment to Latin America. Opening a new data center in Uruguay is more than an effort to expand our support to users and customers in the region. It means creating more opportunities, providing technical solutions to help businesses, governments, and society achieve their goals, and working with communities to help them strengthen their digital skills. We are delighted to start this new chapter in Uruguay and continue to drive growth in the region together.
