The AI company building large models for LatAm governments

A Brazilian company specialized in databases and AI models has been advancing projects for language models specifically developed for Latin American countries.

Based on Oracle cloud and using Nvidia technology, WideLabs has specialized in “foundational” models, especially for countries. Created in 2020, the company is considered one of the main developers of AI solutions in Latin America.

Among the projects already announced, WideLabs developed Amazonia IA, considered Brazil’s first large language model (LLM) natively in Portuguese, and PatagonIA, an LLM trained natively in Chilean Spanish and focused on understanding the country’s culture, customs and geography.

PatagonIA was developed by WideLabs in partnership with the Institute for Complex Engineering Systems (ISCI), in Chile.

The AmazonIA, in turn, is hosted in data centers of Ascenty in São Paulo – where Oracle’s cloud runs – on Supermicro servers assembled by the Brazilian company Positivo.

WideLabs is now developing models similar to those in Brazil and Chile in Mexico and El Salvador and is evaluating projects in other markets, according to Nvidia executives.

Besides governments, other clients for WideLabs’ AI models include Raízen, Coca-Cola and Pfizer.

To support this expansion movement, the startup is in the process of raising a Series A round of US$50 million (mn) from private funds.

Inception

At a recent event promoted by the Brazilian ministry of science and technology, Guilherme Fuhrken, LatAm corporate sales manager at Nvidia, said that, as with WideLabs, there are more than 1.200 companies and 51 startup investment funds in Nvidia’s Inception program in Brazil.

According to Fuhrken, Nvidia has already certified around 19,000 people in its technology in the country.

In Latin America, 310 thousand people have been trained and, as part of the Inception program, 1,600 AI companies and startups, as well as 74 VCs and startup investment funds.

The expectation is that this number will increase in the coming months.

(The original version of this content was written in Portuguese)