Cuba, Bolivia and Paraguay: Where Electricity Meets Ambition

Three Latin American economies illustrate how differently the same regional context can shape technology development.

Paraguay:

Paraguay has one of the world's most unusual electricity positions: it co-owns two enormous hydroelectric dams, including one of the largest in the world, and generates far more power than it consumes, exporting the surplus to neighbours.

That surplus made Paraguay attractive for cryptocurrency mining, which grew substantially, and the same logic applies to AI computing: abundant, cheap, low-carbon electricity is precisely what data centres require.

Renegotiation of the treaty governing one of the dams has been a major national issue, with implications for how much power Paraguay can retain and sell domestically, and the country has actively considered attracting energy-intensive industry rather than exporting raw electricity.

Constraints are substantial: a small population, limited technical education, minimal research capacity, landlocked geography and connectivity that depends on transit through neighbours. Data centre development requires not just power but network capacity and skilled operations staff.

The domestic technology sector is small, with agriculture, soy and beef in particular, dominating the economy, and agricultural technology applications are the most relevant domestically.

Bolivia:

Bolivia holds among the world's largest lithium resources in its salt flats, which connects it directly to the battery supply chain underpinning electrification and grid storage.

Extraction has progressed slowly, constrained by technical difficulty, the particular chemistry of Bolivian brines, state control of the resource and political instability. Multiple international partnerships have been announced with limited output resulting.

The economy is otherwise dominated by natural gas, mining and agriculture, with a technology sector that is small and concentrated in La Paz and Santa Cruz.

Connectivity and electricity access have improved but remain limited in rural areas, and the country's altitude and terrain complicate infrastructure.

Applications with local relevance include agricultural monitoring, mining operations and disaster risk, with flooding and drought both significant.

Cuba:

Cuba's situation is defined by isolation and scarcity. The economy is state-dominated, and the long-standing American embargo restricts access to technology, payment systems and cloud services.

Despite that, Cuba has a well-educated population with high literacy and a strong tradition in medical sciences and mathematics, and Cuban software developers work for foreign clients where payment channels permit.

Internet access was extremely limited until relatively recently, and mobile data access, once introduced, expanded rapidly. Connectivity remains expensive relative to income and subject to restriction during periods of unrest.

Electricity supply has deteriorated significantly, with extended and frequent outages affecting all economic activity, which makes any computing infrastructure impractical.

Applications are concentrated in health and biotechnology, where Cuba has genuine research capability and an established pharmaceutical sector.

The common thread:

All three demonstrate that natural endowments, whether electricity, lithium or an educated population, do not automatically convert into technology capability. Institutions, connectivity, capital and stability determine whether potential is realised.

Paraguay's energy surplus is the region's most striking unexploited AI asset. Whether it attracts computing infrastructure depends on decisions about transmission, connectivity and investment terms rather than on the electricity itself.