MTN Group Ltd, Africa’s largest mobile-phone operator, and Dubai-based tycoon Tarek Al Ashram will develop data centers to power artificial intelligence (AI) on the continent.
“The approach that we are taking on the building of our AI business is to partner with third parties and the entity that we are partnering with has built data centers in the UAE,” MTN Chief Executive Ralph Mupita said at an event on Tuesday. “We are taking a phased approach and will start building out 150 megawatts of AI data center capacity.”
MTN, which operates across 16 African markets, sees AI as part of a strategy to generate future revenue streams. Telecommunications companies globally are investing in data centers to help meet growing consumer and enterprise demand for AI, and to grab a share of the income stream from the hyper-scalers.
The venture plans to build facilities in Nigeria and South Africa to process MTN’s own workflows and rent out capacity to hyper-scalers, other enterprise businesses and governments, which are increasingly asking for more sovereignty over their data sets, said Mupita.
MTN has been purchasing land and negotiating power agreements to ensure it can do a multiple-phased buildout of AI data centers on the continent, said Mupita.
Al Ashram, who is also the co-founder of KKR & Co., -backed Gulf Data Hub, will use his own investment firm to back the new Africa Data Hub Holding Ltd. venture, he said.
“We see significant potential to bring our experience in developing and operating large-scale data center platforms to African markets,” said Al Ashram said. Africa Data Hub will “help shape that growth,” he said.
While Africa has the fastest-growing and youngest population in the world, it has fallen behind in the global rush to build out local AI capacity. Hyper-scalers including Microsoft Corp., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Amazon.com Inc. offer cloud services in Africa but the continent houses less than 1% of the world’s AI data center capacity, according to World Economic Forum data.
While large AI data centers, including a 1 gigawatt facility planned by Microsoft and G42 in Kenya, have so far not materialized, Al Ashram said he sees growing demand for data centers on the continent.
Africa now presents a “similarly compelling opportunity, driven by strong underlying demand, rapidly expanding digital economies and an increasing need for resilient and scalable infrastructure,” to what the Middle East has experienced over the years, said Al Ashram.
Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!
