Brazil BNDES approves BRL 200m loan to Scala Data Centers for machinery and equipment under Nova Indústria Brasil

Mechanism

BNDES, Brazil's state development bank, approved a BRL 200 million (~USD 37.5 million) loan to Scala Data Centers S.A. under the BNDES Máquinas e Serviços programme, which finances the purchase of machinery, industrial systems, IT/automation components and other capital goods. The line carries a national-content preference: imported equipment is only eligible "where there is no possibility of supplying a national equivalent" (impossibilidade de fornecimento de similar nacional), making this both a state-loan and local-content- incentive instrument (matching GTA's dual classification of the underlying intervention).

The financing is explicitly positioned by BNDES leadership as part of Nova Indústria Brasil, the Lula administration's flagship industrial-policy programme, with BNDES president Aloizio Mercadante citing the "digital transformation of industry" and growth of the digital economy as the policy rationale. This is the second BNDES Máquinas e Serviços tranche to Scala: a first BRL 180 million loan in the same format was already fully disbursed prior to this approval, indicating an established, repeatable BNDES-Scala financing relationship rather than a one-off grant.

Severity is kept low (1) because this is routine, company-specific capex financing for a single hyperscale operator rather than a market-shaping subsidy programme or trade-control measure — filed for completeness of the Brazilian digital-infrastructure industrial- policy picture, consistent with the register's existing pattern of BNDES loan actions (aerospace, biofuels, ports, rail).

Downstream implications

• Extends BNDES's role as concessional financier of Brazil's

hyperscale data-center buildout (Scala: >R$12bn invested to date, ~200 MW installed/in development, >12M m² landbank across four countries), alongside the sector's broader draw on Brazilian grid capacity (Scala cites >7 GW of contracted renewable energy connections).

• The national-content preference in BNDES Máquinas e Serviços gives

Brazilian capital-goods and automation suppliers a state-backed edge in hyperscale data-center build-outs, worth tracking against foreign equipment vendors' Brazil market access.

• Establishes a template (two BNDES tranches, R$180m then R$200m) that

other Latin American hyperscale operators may seek to replicate.

Open questions

• Interest rate, tenor and any performance/local-content conditions

attached to the BNDES Máquinas e Serviços disbursement were not disclosed in the press materials found.

• Whether further BNDES tranches to Scala (a third operation) are

anticipated given the fully-disbursed first loan and rapid approval of the second.