Our Mission
RioDeJaneiro.AI is the definitive independent editorial intelligence platform covering Rio AI City — Latin America's first NVIDIA AI City and the most ambitious digital infrastructure project in the Global South. We cover the 3.2 GW hyperscale data center campus at the Olympic Park, the Porto Maravalley innovation hub (55 institutions, R$1 billion in year-one tenant revenue), the NVIDIA supercomputer, COR and CIVITAS smart city operations, world-class university programs, and the investment pathways transforming Rio de Janeiro into the AI capital of the continent.
We exist because no single authoritative English-language hub previously existed for Rio's AI ecosystem. Content was fragmented across government press releases, corporate landing pages, industry trade publications, and wire distributions. RioDeJaneiro.AI is the ecosystem aggregator — connecting Rio AI City, Rio.IA, Porto Maravalley, NVIDIA, COR, CIVITAS, university programs, events, investment pathways, and critical analysis into one comprehensive, independently curated resource trusted by institutional investors, technology executives, government officials, and researchers worldwide.
What We Cover
Our intelligence architecture spans seven interconnected pillars. First, Data Center Infrastructure: Elea's RJO1–RJO4 build-out, NVIDIA supercomputer at Porto Maravalley, Santos Dumont (18.85 petaflops, ranked 89th globally), Equinix RJ3 (US$94M), CloudHQ (36 MW), ODATA (28 MW), DE-CIX Rio exchange, submarine cable connectivity (8 international cables), and waterless cooling technology. Second, Investment & Tax Incentives: the REDATA regime (20%+ cost reduction), ISS Tech 2% rate, BNDES's R$1.7B committed pipeline, Brazil's R$23B federal AI Plan (PBIA), corporate commitments from Microsoft (R$14.7B), Uber (R$500M), BYD, and Invest.Rio pathways. Third, Smart City & AI Governance: COR (3,900+ cameras, IBM partnership, 15 years of operations), CIVITAS (10,000+ devices, R$180M budget, Seoul Smart City Prize winner), facial recognition ethics, and the Marco Legal da IA. Fourth, Talent, Research & Events: PUC-Rio AI bachelor's, UFRJ/COPPE Senseable Rio Lab with MIT, IMPA Tech, Naves do Conhecimento (493K visits/year), OpenAI partnership, Web Summit Rio, and Rio Innovation Week. Fifth, Ecosystem Mapping: Porto Maravalley startup directory, Rio.IA Hub, Mata Maravilha (R$5B urban regeneration), and the innovation corridor from the waterfront to the Olympic Park. Sixth, Competitive Analysis: Rio vs. Scala AI City, Rio vs. São Paulo, Rio vs. global benchmarks (Singapore, Dubai, NEOM), and Brazil's position in global AI readiness indices. Seventh, Critical Assessment: surveillance bias data, speculative investment risks, regulatory uncertainty, MoU vs. contract distinctions, and academic critiques of Rio's smart city model.
Editorial Independence
RioDeJaneiro.AI is an independent publication. We have no commercial relationship, sponsorship agreement, or financial arrangement with Elea Data Centers, the City of Rio de Janeiro, NVIDIA, Oracle, Google/Tapestry, Goldman Sachs, BNDES, or any entity covered in our reporting. Our editorial decisions are made solely by our editorial team. No advertiser, sponsor, or partner has any influence over what we publish, how we frame stories, or which data we highlight. When we present the US$65 billion projection, we also note that ION Analytics has observed that "no major AI hyperscale project has secured contracts or financing yet." When we cover CIVITAS, we also report that over 90% of facial recognition arrests in Brazil involve Black individuals. This is not adversarial — it is responsible intelligence.
Team & Credentials
RioDeJaneiro.AI was founded by Donovan Vanderbilt, an Imperial College London MBA holder based in Vevey, Switzerland, with deep expertise in government advisory, institutional banking, and fintech entrepreneurship. Donovan operates across French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and German, with particular focus on Gulf mega-projects, AI governance, tokenization/fintech, African infrastructure, and national vision programs across a portfolio of 410+ premium domains.
Our editorial contributors include specialists in data center infrastructure and energy systems, Latin American technology markets, Brazilian regulatory and tax policy, urban planning and smart city operations, and AI governance and ethics. Contributors are vetted for direct professional experience in the sectors they cover.
Who Reads RioDeJaneiro.AI
Our primary audience includes institutional investors evaluating Latin American AI infrastructure opportunities, hyperscaler executives analyzing data center capacity and connectivity, energy companies assessing renewable power purchase agreements, government officials studying digital transformation models, and urban planners examining smart city integration. Our secondary audience includes AI researchers, MBA students, technology journalists, startup founders seeking Rio ecosystem access, and professionals exploring career opportunities in Brazil's AI sector. We serve readers in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Gulf states, and Brazil — the highest-RPM geographic markets where decisions about Latin American AI investment are made.
Design & Production
RioDeJaneiro.AI's visual identity and digital architecture were designed by Studio Meridian, Lausanne — Swiss precision meets editorial depth. Every design decision prioritizes clarity, authority, and the kind of atmospheric depth that distinguishes institutional-grade intelligence from commodity content. Our typography system uses Bebas Neue for headlines, DM Sans for body text, and DM Mono for data labels and technical notation — a deliberate pairing that signals both editorial gravitas and technical precision.
Contact
General inquiries: info@riodejaneiro.ai
Editorial and corrections: editorial@riodejaneiro.ai
Privacy and data inquiries: privacy@riodejaneiro.ai
Legal: legal@riodejaneiro.ai
Registered address: Vevey, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland