Lula says Brazil should not depend on the US or China for AI and accuses Trump of wanting to ‘end Pix’

Brazil should not have to choose between dependence on China and dependence on the United States to develop artificial intelligence, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at a campaign rally in São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo. The president and reelection candidate argued for technology produced in Portuguese and highlighted the government’s gov.br platform, which he said connects 178 million people with the government.

Lula tied that expansion to a broader effort to build Brazil’s technological infrastructure. He said Senate approval of the Special Tax Regime for Data Center Services, known as Redata, could open the way to 500 billion reais in data-center investment. The measure provides tax incentives for data-processing and AI centers in Brazil.

“Anyone who comes to produce data centers here will have to produce their own energy,” Lula said. He argued that Brazil’s availability of cheap energy could help attract projects and expand the country’s technological capacity.

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Anyone who comes to produce data centers here will have to produce their own energy.

The president also said U.S. President Donald Trump wants to “end Pix,” Brazil’s payment system. Lula said he planned to defend it when the two leaders meet. “I will meet Trump at the United Nations and tell him to make a Pix payment and see how good it is,” he said.

Lula spoke alongside Fernando Haddad, the Workers’ Party candidate for governor of São Paulo, and Senate candidates Marina Silva and Simone Tebet. After the rally, he was scheduled to visit the Federal University of São Carlos campus and later return to Brasília. Earlier, he had visited the Hospital de Amor in Barretos.

During the event, Lula also said that planning for the future required raising the minimum wage above inflation. He criticized rival Flávio Bolsonaro’s comments about living costs and said the future meant ending the INSS queue and reaching the country’s lowest unemployment rate. Lula contrasted food inflation of 56.17% during the previous government’s four years with 13.6% during his own four-year administration.

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I will meet Trump at the United Nations and tell him to make a Pix payment and see how good it is.