Meta, in partnership with Brazilian company V.tal, will construct a 280-kilometer branch of the Malbec submarine cable along the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This project aims to enhance internet capacity in southern Brazil and neighboring countries (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay).
The new connection will add to the existing 2,500 kilometers linking Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires. The initiative was planned since the main cable's launch in 2021 and will run underground via Balneário Pinhal to Porto Alegre using fiber optic cable.
This improved infrastructure will boost Porto Alegre's capacity to attract technology investments, especially data centers. Companies like V.tal (owned by BTG Pactual) and Scala are already investing in data center projects in the region. V.tal is building an edge data center in Porto Alegre, and Scala has recently launched a data center there.
The Rio Grande do Sul governor, Eduardo Leite, actively supports this development, considering data centers a priority for attracting investment to the state.