Uruguay AI Centre Opens in Montevideo on a US$10 Million Loan
URUGUAY · TECHNOLOGY
Key Facts
- —What opened Uruguay’s national artificial intelligence centre, branded Instituto Vidart, launched on Monday 7 September 2026.
- —Where The Los Ombues building at the LATU innovation park in Montevideo.
- —The money US$10 million from an Inter-American Development Bank loan, spread over four and a half years.
- —The catch The research body still has to be formed. No headcount or annual budget has been published.
- —Who runs it Diego Garagorry as executive director and Matias Di Martino as scientific director, both named in mid-July.
- —First projects Early autism detection and satellite-image analysis to identify crop types.
Uruguay AI policy now has an institution behind it. The money is a loan, the staff are not hired yet, and the ambitions are specific.
Uruguay has opened a national artificial intelligence centre. It was launched in Montevideo on Monday 7 September.
The venue was the Los Ombues building at the LATU innovation park. The centre is branded Instituto Vidart.
The name honours Jorge Vidart, a Uruguayan computing pioneer. Uruguay AI policy has had strategy documents for years and now has an institution.
Funding is US$10 million from an Inter-American Development Bank loan. It is spread across four and a half years.
Who Runs the Uruguay AI Centre
Diego Garagorry is the executive director. Matias Di Martino is the scientific director, and both were designated in mid-July.
The centre sits under the Uruguay Innova programme. That places it with SENCI, the national science secretariat that reports to the presidency, and with AGESIC, the digital government agency.
It is incubated by ANII, the national research and innovation agency. LATU, Ceibal, the state telecoms operator Antel and universities are also involved.
No single ministry owns it. That is deliberate and is also the reason it took eighteen months to stand up.
What It Will Actually Do
Garagorry named two first projects at the launch. One is early detection of autism.
The other is analysis of satellite images to identify crop types. Both are narrow, measurable problems rather than general research.
Health, agriculture and education are the stated priority areas. Agriculture matters here because Uruguay’s exports are largely agricultural.
Garagorry said the research body still has to be formed. He described more than eighty meetings with around two hundred people to define the work.
Where Uruguay Stands on AI
AGESIC said in early September that Uruguay is among the region’s better performers on responsible AI governance. The reference is the 2026 Global Responsible AI Index.
The detail is worth having. Uruguay ranks 22nd globally with a score of 56.99, out of 135 countries and jurisdictions.
Within South and Central America that is third, behind Brazil on 63.3 and Chile on 61.9. The regional average is 38.85.
So Uruguay is well above the regional average and not the regional leader. AGESIC’s own headline said it leads the region, which overstates the index.
The Private Side
Uruguayan AI companies have been raising money independently of the state. Six of them raised more than US$26.3 million between August 2023 and August 2026.
One firm dominates that figure. Zapia has raised US$19.3 million across three rounds, including US$7 million in March 2026.
The rest are smaller. Horizon AI raised US$3.5 million in January, Roma AI US$1.2 million in August, Flipando AI US$1 million and Mozart US$600,000.
Microsoft also opened an AI for Good Lab at LATU, announced in March 2026 and described as the first in South America. No investment figure was disclosed.
What to Watch
The first marker is hiring. A centre with two directors and no announced staff is an intention rather than a capability.
The second is the loan structure. Multilateral loan funding sets a clock, and what happens after four and a half years is not defined.
The third is the first outputs. Autism screening and crop mapping are both testable, which makes this easier to judge than most technology announcements.
More: Uruguay news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Uruguay’s national AI centre?
The Centro Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial, branded Instituto Vidart, launched on 7 September 2026 at the LATU innovation park in Montevideo. It sits under the Uruguay Innova programme and is incubated by ANII.
How is it funded?
With US$10 million from an Inter-American Development Bank loan, spread over four and a half years. No annual budget or staff headcount has been published.
What will it work on first?
Early detection of autism and analysis of satellite images to identify crop types, according to executive director Diego Garagorry. Health, agriculture and education are the stated priority areas.
Sources: la diaria, El Observador, Busqueda, En Perspectiva, Prensa Latina, AGESIC, Rio Times.
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