- Data centers projects are piling up not just in the U.S. but increasingly in the Middle East and Africa
- Egypt is one of the markets flying under the radar
- New entrants - not hyperscalers - are leading the charge in these regions
The UAE’s Stargate project dominated recent digital infrastructure headlines, but the project is one of many ramping in the Middle East and Africa as both regions seek to establish themselves as up-and-coming digital infrastructure players.
As we’ve noted before, the UAE and Saudia Arabia are leading the pack when it comes to data center deployments. The countries currently have 56 and 43 data centers respectively, according to Data Center Map’s count, and both countries are furiously working to build sovereign cloud infrastructure to handle AI workloads.
But there are several other contenders flying under the radar as emerging data center hubs, Sebastien Bonneau, attorney at McDermott Will & Emery, told Fierce. He pointed to Egypt as a prime example and flagged Kenya, Morocco, Bahrain and Oman as additional areas seeing increased activity.
“There’s lots of opportunities in the region,” he said. “The ability to deliver digital infrastructure that is performing well is decisive in the ability of these countries to attract companies and growth,” as well as an edge over their neighbors.
Egypt in focus
Like Saudia Arabia, the Egyptian government has outlined Vision 2030 goals for the country which, among other things, call for attracting data center investment and positioning Egypt as a “regional hub” for data exchange and AI.
The country currently has around 14 data centers, according to Data Center Map, but efforts are underway to grow that number as well as compute capacity.
In December 2024, local data center player Raya Data Center bagged $15 million in funding from infrastructure investment group Africa50 to fuel the development of a new greenfield data center in Egypt. Raya already operates two data centers in Cairo.
Meanwhile, the government is forging ahead with the so-called Atlas Project. According to state media, this aims to “establish a global data center complex powered by renewable energy.”
Bonneau called Atlas a “massive project” and said such "a large DC project in Egypt could present opportunities to further connect the region to Europe."
He explained that a major hurdle slowing data center development in central Africa is that it’s hard to bring together the power, connectivity and demand needed to fuel such projects.
“That’s why the Egyptian play is interesting,” he said.
Movers and shakers
Asked where else he’s been seeing data center activity, Bonneau pointed to growth in Morocco and Kenya. The latter, he said, is especially interesting because it can offer power through its hydroelectric dams that generate cheaper and cleaner energy.
Work in the region isn't just falling to hyperscalers (though they have plunked several of their own facilities in these areas).
In the Middle East, he also spotlighted a new venture called Qareeb Data Centres that is building 50 MW of edge capacity across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan.
Other emerging players include Agility Logistics Parks, which is building data center campuses in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Ghana; DataVolt, which has already signed on for a number of projects in its home country of Saudi Arabia as well as Uzbekistan; and Desert Dragon Data Centers, which appears to be primarily focused on Saudi Arabia.