Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

France increased the budgeted fiscal cost of its standing reduced electricity-excise (accise sur l'électricité) scheme for data storage centres for calendar year 2026. The underlying mechanism, codified at Article L312-70 of the Code des impositions sur les biens et services (CIBS), applies a reduced excise tariff to the fraction of a qualifying data centre's annual electricity consumption exceeding 1 GWh, conditional on meeting eight cumulative infrastructure and energy-efficiency criteria (dedicated digital-data storage/processing/transport function, secured access, energy-management-system certification, waste-heat recovery or efficiency indicators, water-use limits, and a minimum electro-intensity threshold of 2.25%). The scheme is a long-running (since 2019) fiscal-support instrument for France's data-centre industrial base rather than a new measure; GTA logs the 2026 budget increase as a discrete state-aid intervention.

Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget on 26 December 2025, under which METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) funds a new financial-grant line, the "Decarbonized Power Source Regional Contribution Investment Promotion Project" (脱炭素電源地域貢献型 投資促進事業), for the fiscal year running 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. The programme subsidizes large-scale capital investment by electricity consumers -- prioritising data centres and industrial facilities -- that agree to site near decarbonized power sources (nuclear, renewables) and contribute economically to the host municipality, as one of four designated tracks under Japan's GX Strategy Area system. ANRE opened its solicitation for the executing body that will administer FY2026 disbursements via a public offer published 5 February 2026.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved BRL 200 million (~USD 37.5 million) in financing for Scala Data Centers S.A. — Latin America's largest sustainable hyperscale data-center platform, backed by DigitalBridge — to acquire and install machinery, equipment, IT/automation systems and materials for its data-center infrastructure. The loan is drawn under the BNDES Máquinas e Serviços credit line, which prioritises nationally manufactured goods and national services, permitting imported equipment only where no domestic equivalent is available. BNDES president Aloizio Mercadante framed the financing as part of the Lula government's Nova Indústria Brasil industrial-policy programme, aimed at the digital transformation of Brazilian industry. This is the second such operation for Scala: a prior BRL 180 million tranche in the same format was already fully disbursed.

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed a NOK 1 billion (EUR 86 million / USD 100 million) loan with Hafslund AS, Norway's second-largest renewable energy group and largest district-heating supplier. The loan is split into two NOK 500 million tranches with eight- and eleven-year tenors and finances three projects: reconstruction of the Braskereidfoss hydropower dam and plants on the Glomma River (destroyed by Storm Hans in 2023), construction of the 20 MW Skygard data centre at Økern, Oslo, and an upgrade of Aker Hospital's district-heating connection. NIB financing is provided at preferential development-bank rates relative to commercial project finance, functioning as a below-market state-backed subsidy to strategic domestic energy and digital infrastructure.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved a BRL 117.2 million (~USD 21.7 million) loan to Lightera Latam S.A. — the Brazilian (Curitiba) arm of Lightera, a Furukawa Electric group optical-solutions company — drawn under the Funttel BNDES telecommunications technology fund. The financing supports R&D, machinery/equipment and prototyping for new optical-connectivity products: high-density fibre-optic cables, passive optical network equipment, network management/monitoring systems, and IoT/machine-learning sensing solutions for data-centre and telecom markets. BNDES president Aloizio Mercadante framed the loan as advancing the Lula government's strategic connectivity and telecommunications-competitiveness agenda; Global Trade Alert logs the same underlying operation under both a "state loan" and a "local content incentive" classification.

Bpifrance, France's public investment bank, joined a five-bank syndicate (alongside MUFG, Kommunalkredit Austria, La Banque Postale and BNP Paribas) providing a EUR 170 million refinancing package (EUR 120m base plus EUR 50m additional capacity) to ETIX, a French-headquartered proximity data-center operator, to fund its expansion across France and Europe. Bpifrance's press release frames the deal explicitly around European digital sovereignty: ETIX positions itself as a "credible and sustainable European alternative" to a data-center market "dominated by extra-European players." GTA records the state-loan tranche attributable to Bpifrance at EUR 120 million (~USD 139.6 million).

On 18 September 2025 Brazil's federal government published Medida Provisória (Provisional Measure) 1318/2025, creating REDATA — the Special Taxation Regime for Datacenter Services — alongside a parallel IT-export regime (REPES). REDATA zeroes federal taxes on servers, storage, networking, cooling and other datacenter capital equipment for qualifying operators from 1 January 2026, conditioned on 100% renewable/zero-carbon energy sourcing, a 2% of investment R&D-in-Brazil commitment, and preferential use of Brazilian- manufactured components. The Finance Ministry projects R$5.2 billion in forgone-tax incentives in 2026 alone, with potential to unlock up to R$2 trillion in private datacenter investment over ten years. REDATA is framed as implementing the National Datacenter Policy (PNDC) under the Nova Indústria Brasil industrial-policy umbrella.

On 28 May 2025, Brazilian President Lula launched "Chamada Nordeste" in Salgueiro (Pernambuco) — a BRL 10 billion (~USD 1.8bn) public call for structuring investment projects in the nine Northeast states, run jointly by BNDES, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Banco do Nordeste (BNB) and Finep, with technical support from Sudene and the Northeast Consortium. It is the largest project call ever run for the region and sits under the federal Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) industrial-policy umbrella. Eligible business plans (minimum BRL 10 million) cover storage/renewable energy, bioeconomy with a pharmaceuticals focus, green hydrogen, green data centers and the automotive/agricultural-machinery sector, financed via a combination of credit lines, non-reimbursable economic subsidies and equity participation; the proposal deadline was 15 September 2025. Demand vastly exceeded supply: the call drew 245 proposals totalling roughly BRL 127.8 billion — nearly 13 times the initial BRL 10bn envelope — before BNDES approved 189 projects worth BRL 113 billion in follow-on selection rounds.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation approved up to USD 18.3 million in EDGE (Economic Development for a Growing Economy) payroll-based tax credits for Amazon Data Services Inc., tied to Amazon Web Services' USD 11 billion data center campus at the Indiana Enterprise Center in New Carlisle, St. Joseph County. The credit was one component of a larger state incentive package announced by Governor Eric Holcomb on 2024-04-25, which also included up to USD 55 million in Hoosier Business Investment tax credits, up to USD 20 million in redevelopment tax credits, up to USD 5 million in training grants, a USD 7 million road-infrastructure contribution, and a 50-year state sales-tax exemption on data center equipment. IEDC records cite an incentive-agreement effective date of 2023-09-01. The project committed to creating at least 1,000 new jobs.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation approved up to USD 55 million in Hoosier Business Investment (HBI) tax credits for Amazon Data Services Inc., tied to Amazon Web Services' USD 11 billion data center campus at the Indiana Enterprise Center in New Carlisle, St. Joseph County. This is the largest single instrument in the five-part state incentive package Governor Eric Holcomb announced on 2024-04-25, which also included up to USD 18.3 million in EDGE payroll tax credits, up to USD 20 million in redevelopment tax credits, up to USD 5 million in training grants, a USD 7 million road-infrastructure contribution, and a 50-year state sales-tax exemption on data center equipment. IEDC describes all incentives as performance-based, claimable only once the underlying investment and job-creation commitments are verified. IEDC records cite an incentive-agreement effective date of 2023-09-01.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation approved up to USD 20 million in redevelopment tax credits for Amazon Data Services Inc., tied to Amazon Web Services' USD 11 billion data center campus at the Indiana Enterprise Center in New Carlisle, St. Joseph County. This is the third of five distinct incentive instruments in the state package Governor Eric Holcomb announced on 2024-04-25, alongside up to USD 18.3 million in EDGE payroll tax credits, up to USD 55 million in Hoosier Business Investment tax credits, up to USD 5 million in training grants, a USD 7 million road-infrastructure contribution, and a 50-year state sales-tax exemption on data center equipment. IEDC records cite an incentive-agreement effective date of 2023-09-01.