A smartphone with a displayed NVIDIA logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Nvidia on Wednesday denied plans to invest $1 billion in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, hours after the state governor touted the firm's plans to build a data center there.

"Nvidia does not have financial investment plans in Nuevo Leon," the firm said in a statement to Reuters. "The company's support for digital transformation and technological progress in Latin America is based exclusively on cooperation initiatives, research and talent development."

Earlier in the day, Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia said in a message shared on social media that Nvidia was planning to spend $1 billion to build a so-called green data center focusing on artificial intelligence in the state.

Garcia made the announcement in a video message uploaded to social media, flanked by representatives from Nvidia.

It was not immediately clear who the Nvidia representatives were or why they did not dispute the governor's claim.

Nvidia did not immediately answer a request for clarification from Reuters on those topics or what the future of the purported data center was.

The Nuevo Leon state government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Brendan O'Boyle)