AI drives higher density in Latin American data centers
Data center capacity in Latin America grew 41.3% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, while AI workloads are driving higher power and cooling requirements.
The expansion of artificial intelligence is driving data centers across the region toward higher-density architectures, with liquid cooling and hybrid models to support increasingly demanding workloads.
During the first quarter of 2026, installed data center capacity in Latin America increased 41.3% year over year, outpacing the 33% growth recorded in North America. The increase comes amid rising demand for AI-related processing and new investments in digital infrastructure.
Regional growth is driving the transition toward so-called AI Factories, high-performance facilities designed to support increasingly complex thermal and power loads. Projections cited in the statement estimate that generative AI could contribute up to USD 15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
Higher density increases power and cooling requirements.
Unlike traditional web searches, AI-assisted processing can require up to 10 times more energy.
Data centers that traditionally operated at densities of 5 kW to 15 kW per rack now face requirements ranging from 100 kW to as much as 600 kW per rack due to the deployment of GPU-accelerated clusters, exceeding the capabilities of conventional air cooling.
In practice, increasing rack density is driving the combination of liquid cooling, air-cooling systems and new electrical architectures to support loads of varying intensity within the same facility.
Among the technology trends Schneider Electric identifies for the region’s digital infrastructure are the adoption of Direct-to-Chip or immersion liquid cooling systems; the deployment of micro data centers through Edge Computing; new modular electrical architectures; the use of digital twins to simulate thermal and electrical behavior; and IoT and DCIM platforms for monitoring and predictive analysis of energy consumption.
Hybrid models combine air and liquid cooling.
In cooling, this shift does not mean completely replacing air cooling. Hybrid thermal models retain air cooling for conventional loads and perimeter cooling, while liquid cooling is deployed locally for the high-density loads generated by AI servers.
Cooling systems can account for between 30% and 40% of the electricity consumption of a traditional data center. According to the statement, integrating liquid cooling solutions can reduce OPEX, improve the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) metric and conserve water resources.
Luis Santamaría, CS&P Segment Leader for SAM at Schneider Electric: “Latin America is experiencing a pivotal moment in its digital infrastructure. The massive emergence of AI is driving rack densities that are redefining the physical design of data rooms, power distribution and the sustainability of the ecosystem. To absorb this demand and attract international capital in key countries such as Colombia, Chile, Peru and Argentina, highly resilient, digitalized data centers capable of optimizing energy consumption in real time are required”.
Electrical infrastructure incorporates simulation and modularity.
The modular electrical architectures mentioned in the statement can achieve operational efficiencies of up to 99% in eConversion mode, while tools such as ETAP enable facilities to be modeled virtually before physical changes are made.
Paula Pinto, Business Development Manager Cooling SAM at Schneider Electric: “Liquid cooling has ceased to be a niche alternative and become a critical operational necessity in response to the rapid growth of AI. However, the future of the sector will be hybrid: liquid cooling is focused directly on the chip to extract high-density heat, coexisting with air cooling in the rest of the environment. This technological convergence is key to decarbonizing digital infrastructure, optimizing data room space and ensuring that the growth of the digital economy in Latin America is fully sustainable”.
Against the global 2040 decarbonization target, Schneider Electric proposes integrating solutions from the chip through to the cooling system, together with global semiconductor partners such as NVIDIA, with designs geared toward the new density, power and thermal management requirements of data centers in Latin America.
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