Hill and Adamson, Study for the Disruption Picture: Signing of the Deed of Demission, October 18, 1843. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.
- Between 7 and 24 July 2026, CARICOM endorsed a UNESCO AI policy roadmap, Trinidad and Tobago signed AI and vanadium MOUs projected at over $5 billion, and the first Caribbean AI Forum launched a Task Force report.
- The two data centre MOUs add up to 450 megawatts of initial capacity, close to a fifth of Trinidad and Tobago's roughly 2.4 gigawatts of generation.
- The 5,000-plus projected jobs are mostly construction, facilities and operations. Nothing published so far requires the investors to train Trinidadian AI engineers.
- Hosting a data centre means renting out land, power and cooling. Owning AI means Caribbean people design the models and hold the intellectual property. The MOUs are still non-binding, so the terms can still change.
On 11 July 2026, Trinidad and Tobago's Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister, Sean Sobers, signed memorandums of understanding projected at more than $5 billion. Four days earlier, CARICOM had endorsed a regional AI policy roadmap. The first Caribbean AI Forum released a regional Task Force report on 23 and 24 July. Policy, capital and coordination arrived in the same month, which is rare here. None of it yet gives the region ownership of any AI capability, and the MOUs are where that can still be negotiated.
What was signed and endorsed between 7 and 24 July
7 July: the roadmap. The 126th Special Meeting of COTED-ICT, the ICT meeting of CARICOM's Council for Trade and Economic Development, endorsed the UNESCO Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Policy Roadmap. UNESCO built it on consultations with more than 1,000 people across the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, grounded in its Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.
11 July: the MOUs. Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Sean Sobers signed three memorandums for Trinidad and Tobago:
- Ernst & Young: a 300-megawatt data centre on its Energy to Intelligence platform.
- Hummingbird AI Holdings, based in Florida: an AI campus starting at 150 megawatts, scalable to 500, with operations targeted for early 2028.
- Pinnacle Steel and Vanadium Corporation: recommissioning its Point Lisas facility, which the company says could supply up to half of US vanadium demand.
The government projects more than 5,000 jobs across the three. These are memorandums, not construction contracts, and each is subject to technical, commercial and regulatory due diligence.
23-24 July: the Forum. The Caribbean Telecommunications Union, UWI St Augustine and the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre held the first Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Forum and launched the Caribbean AI Task Force Report. Task Force chair Dr Craig Ramlal said the Caribbean cannot afford to remain on the sidelines.
The sequencing was better than usual
Caribbean regional policy usually fails on order. A framework is written with no money behind it, or money arrives with no framework to negotiate against, or a task force meets after the deals have closed. This July the roadmap had CARICOM's endorsement, the Task Force had a named chair and a published report, and the capital had signed and dated MOUs.
Most of the coverage skipped the question of who ends up owning the technology.
Thomas Rowlandson, Quarter Day, or Clearing the Premises without Consulting Your Landlord, 1814. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.
Hosting a data centre is renting out power and land
A hosted data centre is a building full of another company's servers that run its software and its models. The two data centre MOUs add up to 450 megawatts of initial capacity against national generation of roughly 2.4 gigawatts. Close to a fifth of the country's power system would run machines Trinidad did not design and does not own.
| Hosting | Owning | |
|---|---|---|
| What the country supplies | Land, electricity, cooling, permits | Engineers, data, companies, research |
| Typical local jobs | Construction, facilities, security, operations | Model design, data science, product |
| Who holds the IP | The foreign operator | Caribbean firms and institutions |
| What stays if the tenant leaves | The building and the grid upgrade | Skills, companies and products |
The 5,000 jobs matter and no government should wave them off. Public reporting on the MOUs describes no requirement that Ernst & Young or Hummingbird train Trinidadian engineers to build AI systems. Renting out power and cooling is a legitimate strategy, and it is a different achievement from building an AI industry.
The Seventeen Days, By the Numbers
- 17 daysFrom CARICOM's roadmap endorsement (July 7) to the close of the first Caribbean AI Forum (July 24)
- $5B+Projected investment across Trinidad and Tobago's three AI and vanadium MOUs, signed July 11, 2026
- 450 MWCombined initial AI data centre capacity from Ernst & Young (300 MW) and Hummingbird AI Holdings (150 MW, scalable to 500 MW)
- 2.4 GWTrinidad and Tobago's total national generation capacity, against which the new AI load is measured
- 5,000+Jobs projected across the three signed agreements
- 1,000+People consulted in building the UNESCO Caribbean AI Policy Roadmap CARICOM endorsed on July 7
Ownership needs engineers, companies and data rights
Dutch, Marriage Contract, 1761. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.
Disclosure: I founded StarApple AI in Kingston, and I have a stake in the argument that the region should build its own capability. I started it because I did not want to wait for a foreign firm to decide the Caribbean was worth the effort.
Ownership shows up in four places. Caribbean engineers who can design and train a model. Local AI companies selling their own products to banks, insurers and governments, not reselling a foreign API. Universities producing graduates who build systems, which is the work the Caribbean AI Association pushes for. And a free route into the field for young people, which is why the Genius Project exists.
I cannot show that capability pays back faster than hosting. Hosting brings money in within a few years. Engineers and companies take a decade, and some of the people trained will emigrate. The case for ownership rests on what the region still has when a lease ends, and that is a judgement, not a measured return.
"Trinidad just proved the Caribbean can attract serious AI capital. The Forum just proved the region can coordinate policy at CARICOM scale. Neither proves we own a single model that runs on any of it. That third thing is the only one that actually changes our position in this industry."- Adrian Dunkley, AI Boss
What Caribbean negotiators should put in the next AI deal
- Trinidad and Tobago's negotiating team: before any MOU becomes a contract, add a skills-transfer schedule that splits the 5,000 jobs by category (construction, facilities, engineering, data science) with a target and date for each. Publish the split.
- The same team: require each operator to fund a set number of AI engineering places at UWI St Augustine or UTT each year for the term of the lease, and name the number in the contract.
- T&TEC and the energy ministry: publish how the 450 megawatts will be supplied and who pays for new generation, before construction starts, so the grid cost is not settled by default.
- CARICOM ICT ministers: turn the UNESCO roadmap into a two-page negotiating checklist for member states (data residency, local hiring, IP licensing, power pricing) and circulate it before the next data centre offer arrives in any member state.
- Finance ministries: set aside a fixed share of any data centre tax or lease revenue for local AI founders and research grants, and state the percentage in the budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a memorandum of understanding legally binding?
Usually not in its main commercial terms. An MOU records what both sides intend to do and sets up the negotiation of definitive contracts, which is where prices, timelines and obligations become enforceable. Some clauses in an MOU, such as confidentiality or exclusivity, are often written to be binding, so the fine print matters. That is why the skills and power terms need to be settled before the contracts are signed.
Will a large data centre raise electricity bills for households in Trinidad and Tobago?
It depends on who pays for the new generation and transmission the load needs. If the operator funds its own supply or pays a tariff that covers the full cost, households need not see a rise. If the cost is spread across the system, they could. Electricity rates in Trinidad and Tobago are set by the Regulated Industries Commission, which is the body to watch for any tariff review linked to the new load.
What is data residency, and can Caribbean governments require it?
Data residency means certain data must be stored or processed inside a country's borders. Governments can require it by law or write it into contracts with an operator. Jamaica's Data Protection Act 2020 restricts transfers of personal data abroad, while Trinidad and Tobago's Data Protection Act 2011 has been only partly brought into force, so its protections are weaker in practice. A hosting deal is a chance to set these terms for government data at least.
What is the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI?
It is the first global standard on AI ethics, adopted by all UNESCO member states in November 2021. It covers human rights, transparency, accountability and environmental impact, and UNESCO pairs it with a Readiness Assessment Methodology that countries can use to check their own laws and institutions. The Caribbean roadmap endorsed on 7 July builds on it.
How can a citizen track whether these MOUs become real contracts?
Watch for statements from the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs and the Ministry of Energy, and for parliamentary questions, which are recorded in Hansard on the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago website. Planning and environmental approvals from the Environmental Management Authority are a sign that a project has moved past intent. If no approvals appear within a year, treat the headline figure with caution.