The Middle East and Africa Data Center Market Report: Investment, Area, Power Capacity, and Share Analysis. The Comprehensive 10-year Study Report Offers the Latest Insights And Covers 14 Countries & 177 Companies.

Middle East and Africa Data Center Market Landscape 2025-2030

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA DATA CENTER MARKET INSIGHTS

The Middle East and Africa data center market size by investment was valued at USD 8.63 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 19.89 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.92% during the forecast period. The market is witnessing growth with a rise in digitalization, internet penetration, and the development of smart cities. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Israel are among the primary data center destinations in the region, with countries such as Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt as emerging destinations.

KEY TRENDS

Government Support for Data Center Development Will Drive the Middle East And Africa Data Center Market Growth

1. The governments across the Middle East & Africa are working on improving digital infrastructure by supporting digitalization and offering tax incentives. In Kenya, special economic zones (SEZs) are aimed at driving industrial growth by offering extensive tax incentives to businesses, including a 20% reduction in corporate tax for the first decade, followed by a 15% reduction over the subsequent ten years. These incentives not only reduce operational costs but also make Kenya an attractive destination for data center investments.
2. In 2024, the South African National Policy on Data and Cloud aims to drive economic growth, enhance public service delivery, and strengthen data security by leveraging cloud technologies.
3. In addition, the policies and regulations on the local storage of sensitive data will boost the digital economy in several countries within the region. Most of the data is currently stored in offshore data centers. For example, the Nigerian government has mandated the local storage of the data about sectors such as oil & gas, financial services, and the public sector.

Smart City Developments Will Drive the Demand for Advanced Technologies in the Middle East And Africa Data Center Market

1. The Middle East & Africa central location market is a crucial area for undersea cable landing stations, which enhance global connectivity and support the development of large-scale smart cities. As a smart city expands, it generates an increasing amount of data, leading to a higher demand for storage and computing power. This growing need will drive the establishment of edge data centers for High-Performance Computing (HPC), making the region more commercially attractive to investors.
2. The prioritization of data infrastructure in cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Cairo, Doha, Cape Town, Muscat, and Amman demonstrates the MEA’s commitment to leveraging technology. For instance, as per the IMD Smart City Index 2024, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have both secured top positions, with Abu Dhabi at 10th and Dubai at 12th, making them the only Middle Eastern cities in the Top 20.
3. As smart cities progress, there will be a push for advanced technologies, including 5G, IoT, and AI, to enhance internet speed and data flow. This surge in connectivity is expected to boost the need for data centers in Africa. With the smart city initiatives gaining momentum, more investors are estimated to enter the data center market and invest in data center infrastructure.
4. In September 2024, the Dubai Data and Artificial Intelligence Platform, developed by Digital Dubai and Moro Hub, will serve as a significant smart city initiative. This platform enables seamless data exchange and advanced analytics, supporting more informed decision-making by the government and enhancing the digital and data maturity in the UAE.

SEGMENTATION INSIGHTS

1. The Middle East and Africa data center market, particularly in terms of IT infrastructure, is primarily seeing the use of switches with up to 40 GbE ports. With the development of cloud data centers, the adoption of switches with ports varying from 25−100 GbE across multiple layers of the data center architecture will increase. Additionally, with the growing need for sophisticated infrastructure, the uptake of flash storage devices and blade servers is expected to rise in the forecast period.
2. In the upcoming years, sustainability mandates are anticipated to drive the adoption of generators that utilize sustainable fuels like hydrotreated vegetable oils, among others. This trend is expected to be followed by an increase in demand for UPS systems equipped with batteries such as lithium-ion and other types.
3. Rack Centre’s data center in Lagos has installed diesel generators with a redundancy of N+2 and has on-site fuel storage providing backup of around 40 hours at full load.
4. The Middle East and Africa data center market is poised to see ongoing development of greenfield buildings in various countries where there is an abundance of land available for industrial development. The entry of new data center operators and increasing expansion by existing operators in the region is also expected to attract several new contractors and subcontractors in the market.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA DATA CENTER MARKET GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

1. The Middle East region contributes to over 60% of the overall data center investments in the Middle East and Africa data center market, with the remaining 40% contributed by the Africa region. The market is poised to witness growth during the forecast period.
2. The UAE is one of the well-established markets for data center development in the Middle East. Dubai and Abu Dhabi were the major locations that witnessed data center investments from operators such as Equinix, Gulf Data Hub, Khazna Data Centers, and others.
3. In 2024, around 50 MW of data center power capacity was added by the operators in Saudi Arabia, which is the second-highest in the Middle East region after the UAE. The market witnessed several new entrants during LEAP 2025, which was held in Riyadh.
4. South Africa contributed over 47% of the overall data center market investments in the African region. The market is a top and established data center destination in the African region.

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

1. The Middle East and Africa data center market has the presence of some of the major global and local data center operators. Some of them include Khanzna Data Centers, Gulf Data Hub, Digital Realty, Equinix, center3 (stc), Edgnex Data Centres by DAMAC, Africa Data Centres, Raxio Data Centres, MedOne, NTT DATA, Vantage Data Centers, and other operators.
2. The Middle East and Africa data center market is also witnessing the entry of several new operators. Some of them include Agility, Pure Data Centres, Qareeb Data Centres, DataVolt, Anan, NED, Techtonic, Desert Dragon Data Centers, and other operators.
3. Several global cloud operators, such as Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and others, have a presence in the Middle East and Africa data center market, offering cloud services through dedicated cloud regions. The operators are expanding their presence through the development of new cloud regions to support the growing demand.