The government of Trinidad and Tobago says it has signed MoUs with US companies Ernst & Young and Hummingbird AI Holdings to develop AI-ready data centres and infrastructure in the country with at least 450MW of load capacity.
According to a Facebook post from United National Congress (the political party of prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar) on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs signed an MoU with Ernst & Young to create a framework for collaborating on developing large-scale data centres and supporting infrastructure.
Under the framework, EY will leverage its Energy to Intelligence (E2I) platform to develop a 300 MW data centre. EY will also partner with third parties for the project.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s MoU with Hummingbird AI also establishes a framework to develop a proposed 150 MW AI infrastructure and data-centre facility, with potential longer-term expansion to 500 MW.
Initial commercial operation for the latter facility is tentatively targeted for the first quarter of 2028. That said, both projects will undergo due diligence before the government decides to proceed with either.
Trinidad and Tobago currently has five data centres – four in Port of Spain, and one in Prince Town. According to Data Center Map, the data centres in Port of Spain are all Tier III compliant.
The UNC post said that the MoUs – combined with a third MoU with Pinnacle Steel and Vanadium to refurbish and recommission its recently acquired iron and steel plant at Point Lisas into a vanadium plant – could represent a combined potential investment exceeding US$5 billion over the coming years that will generate in excess of 5,000 new jobs, provided any of them make it past the due-diligence stage.
According to a report in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath addressed concerns raised in several media reports, including one from the Associated Press, that the data centre projects would impact Trinidad and Tobago’s water supply, which is already plagued by chronic shortages.
Padarath said the proposed data centres won’t have a negative impact on the country’s water security, as the government intends to build the data centres in a special economic zone – possibly Debe – where special ponds will be constructed to supply water to the data centres, along with desalinisation plants as a longer-term backup resource for the country in general.
"We will have a hybrid system in terms of utilising the ponds in the first instance that are created, the man-made ponds, and then if additional water supply is needed by then the desalination plants would come on stream," Padarath was quoted as saying in the report.
Little is known about Hummingbird AI, except that managing member Marc-Kwesi Farrel – who is named in the government press release as a signatory – is the founder and CEO of Ten To One Rum. He is also a non-executive director of Caribbean-focused investment holding and management company Massy Holdings, whose main portfolios are focused on retail, gas products, motors and machines, and financial services.
