Itaú buys NeoSpace AI for R$2.92B: Brazil's biggest bank bets on homegrown AI models

• Who: Itaú Unibanco, the Brazilian lender, acquiring AI startup NeoSpace AI.
• What: an agreement to acquire 100% of NeoSpace AI's issued shares.
• When: announced October 26, 2026, in a securities filing.
• Price: R$2.925 billion (about $589 million at R$4.9654 per dollar), part due at closing and the balance deferred over five years.
• Backstory: Itaú led NeoSpace's $18 million funding round in January 2025 at a $100 million valuation; NeoSpace's founders previously built Zup, which Itaú acquired in 2019 for more than R$500 million.
• What's next: the deal needs regulatory approval; NeoSpace keeps operating independently under co-founder and CEO Bruno Pierobon, and its technology will feed Itaú's generative AI platform i.ai.

Brazilian lender Itaú Unibanco said on Monday it has agreed to acquire all shares issued by artificial intelligence startup NeoSpace AI for R$2.925 billion, about $589 million, Reuters reported from a securities filing. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

The deal

Under the agreement, part of the R$2.925 billion price is due at closing and the balance is deferred over five years. That structure spreads Itaú's cash outlay while locking in the team behind a startup it already knows well: NeoSpace has worked with Itaú for nearly two years, according to the filing.

NeoSpace will continue to operate independently under the leadership of co-founder and chief executive Bruno Pierobon. The other co-founders are Felipe Almeida, Gustavo Debs and Thiago Teixeira, and the company was founded in late 2023.

From a $100 million valuation to $589 million

The price is a steep markup on NeoSpace's last known valuation. Itaú led an $18 million funding round in January 2025 that valued the startup at $100 million, with participation from Martin Escobari of General Atlantic and Micky Malka of Ribbit Capital. At $589 million, the acquisition values NeoSpace at nearly six times that round.

There is precedent for this exact playbook. Pierobon, Almeida and Debs previously founded technology firm Zup, which Itaú acquired in 2019 for more than R$500 million. Itaú is, in effect, buying the same founding team's second company — this time an AI company rather than a software consultancy.

What NeoSpace actually builds

NeoSpace specializes in what it calls Large Data Models: systems designed to analyze diverse data formats and documents rather than focusing solely on language. The pitch to corporate clients is to build and train specialized AI models using their own proprietary data, rather than renting a general-purpose model. Its customers span telecommunications, aviation and energy, and the company is pursuing expansion into the United States and Europe.

Why Itaú is buying

Itaú intends to deploy NeoSpace's technology across its internal tools, including its generative AI platform i.ai, which launched in late July. The bank plans to roll that platform out to 100% of its individual retail app users by the end of 2026 — a deadline roughly two months away, which makes an acquired, already-integrated AI team more valuable than a new vendor relationship.

The acquisition also fits a wider pattern of banks buying AI capability instead of building it from scratch. For Itaú, which already owned a piece of NeoSpace from the 2025 round, the deal converts a minority bet and a customer relationship into full control of the technology at the moment its own AI rollout is scaling.

What happens next

Two things are still open. First, regulatory approval: the deal cannot close until regulators sign off, and no closing date has been given. Second, integration: NeoSpace stays independent for now, so the test will be whether its models land inside i.ai and Itaú's internal tools while the startup keeps serving its other corporate clients.

If it closes on those terms, Itaú will have spent R$2.925 billion to own the AI team it has been working with for two years — and to make sure the models behind its retail AI rollout are built in-house.