Powering the future: A bold new vision in Rio de Janeiro

Today, as part of a broader announcement from The City of Rio de Janeiro and X, The Moonshot Factory, Tapestry unveiled a new partnership with the City of Rio to support its landmark Rio AI City initiative.

The Rio AI City project, which Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes announced earlier this year, is a bold bet on the future of AI and its ability to drive innovation. The project will transform Rio’s Olympic Park region into one of the largest data center hubs in Latin America, anchored by a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence campus powered entirely by clean energy.

Tapestry’s role is to ensure that the city’s grid is “AI ready” and that Rio AI City has access to the reliable energy it needs. Without reliable energy, you can’t build an AI City – so this work is foundational to making the Rio AI City vision a reality, using AI and human innovation to supercharge Rio’s economy and uplift its community.

In addition to the City of Rio, we’re honored to be working on this project alongside three of Brazil’s preeminent companies, including AXIA Energia (formerly Eletrobras), the largest electricity generation and transmission company in Latin America; Elea Data Centers, one of the region's fastest-growing data center companies (and developer of the Rio AI City project); and Light S.A., which distributes electricity to Rio AI City and the entire metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro.

Tapestry’s GridAware tool will support technicians in Rio’s AI City to make decisions about the grid by offering greater visibility into the existing physical grid, allowing for improved maintenance of poles, transformers, and other assets using computer vision, machine learning and AI.

Tapestry’s Grid Planning Tool will enable planners to look up to 20 years into the future, using grid simulations to model ‘what if’ scenarios and see the hour-by-hour impact of new energy sources and energy demands on the power grid. Together, these tools will give better visibility for efficient and cost-effective network decisions that keep the grid reliable and resilient as the Rio AI City project grows.

Brazil has long been somewhere that Tapestry hoped to operate. It’s home to one of the world’s largest integrated electric grids, its overall energy matrix is among the cleanest and least carbon-intensive in the world, and Brazil is the world's third-largest producer of hydropower. More importantly, it’s a place where we believe Tapestry’s tools can help build a more resilient grid that benefits every home and business.

As the adoption and use of artificial intelligence continues to accelerate, there will come a day when many cities will be “AI cities."Rio is building a blueprint for how to accomplish this, and Tapestry is pleased to partner with the City of Rio, AXIA Energia, Light and Elea to make this vision a reality.