The South Africa Data Center Market Size, Share, Trends, & Investments By IT Infrastructure, Electrical Infrastructure, Mechanical Infrastructure, Cooling Systems, General Construction, & Tier Standard.

South Africa Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2026-2031

SOUTH AFRICA DATA CENTER MARKET SIZE & OUTLOOK

The South Africa data center market size was valued at USD 2.55 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach USD 5.28 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 12.90% during the forecast period. South Africa is one of the growing data center markets in the African region it holds a significant share in the Africa data center market. The South Africa data center market is driven by several factors, such as the growing adoption of digital platforms, advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, and big data, the digital economy, expanding 5G network connectivity, increasing internet users, rising data traffic, government initiatives, as well as the increase in mobile and social media users; this is expected to significantly enhance data traffic and demand for data centers.

South Africa has witnessed to investment from both global and local data center operators, as well as hyperscale operators such as Microsoft. For instance, in November 2025, Teraco, a Digital Realty company, announced its plans to expand the CT1 data center facility in Cape Town. The expansion will add around 10,764 square feet of new data halls and around 2 MW of critical IT load, increasing its total power capacity to around 5 MW; it is expected to be completed by 2027.

In January 2026, Open Access Data Centres (OADC) officially announced its strategic acquisition of seven data centers from NTT DATA across South Africa. This acquisition, which was completed on December 31, 2025, following approval from the Competition Commission, will significantly expand OADC's national data center footprint. The addition of these seven facilities will increase the total capacity to over 25 MW.

As of November 2025, South Africa hosts around 11 operational submarine cables such as 2Africa, Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE 1), Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy), Equiano, Meltingpot Indianoceanic Submarine System (METISS), SAFE, SAT-3/WASC, SEACOM/Tata TGN-Eurasia, T3, and West Africa Cable System (WACS). The country is witnessing investment in two more submarine cables, which are expected to become operational by the forecast period.

In November 2025, Seacom announced an investment of around $2 billion in its new Seacom 2.0 submarine cable, which will connect Africa (including South Africa), Europe, and Asia. The system will be built in four phases, with the first phase running from Egypt to Mombasa, Kenya, and the second phase extending the cable from Kenya to South Africa.

SOUTH AFRICA DATA CENTER MARKET - KEY HIGHLIGHTS

1. The government of South Africa is investing in AI. For instance, in July 2025, South Africa’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation announced the country’s investment of approximately $28.4 million in AI, blockchain, and other emerging technologies to strengthen foundational digital capabilities in the public sector. Additionally, the fund supports the Foundational Digital Capabilities Research (FDCR) platform and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAIR) across nine universities located in Cape Town, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, and Sol Plaatje University.
2. Johannesburg is the top data center destination in South Africa. It continues to be the leading hub in the country for data center expansion, marked by a concentrated growth in advanced facilities, hyperscale data centers, and dedicated cloud regions.
3. In South Africa, the electricity demand is steadily increasing due to rising investments in data centers, which are driving higher power consumption. This growing demand has highlighted challenges in the country's power supply. To address these challenges, the government of South Africa has taken some initiatives to meet electricity demands across the country, while data center operators are increasingly adopting renewable energy for their data center facilities.
4. In February 2025, Teraco, a Digital Realty company, announced the signing of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NOA, an integrated energy aggregator based in South Africa, to acquire renewable energy (wind energy) for use in its data center.

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS RESEARCH?

1. Market size available in the investment, area, power capacity, and South Africa colocation market revenue.
2. An assessment of the data center investment in South Africa by colocation, hyperscale, and enterprise operators.
3. Data center investments in the area (square feet) and power capacity (MW) across cities in the country.
4. A detailed study of the existing South Africa data center market landscape, an in-depth industry analysis, and insightful predictions about the South Africa data center market size during the forecast period.
5. Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party data center facilities in South Africa
6. Facilities Covered (Existing): 55
7. Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 5
8. Coverage: 25+ Locations
9. Existing vs. Upcoming (Data Center Area)
10. Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)
11. Data center colocation market in South Africa
12. Colocation Market Revenue & Forecast (2022-2031)
13. Retail & Wholesale Colocation Revenue (2022-2031)
14. Retail & Wholesale Colocation Pricing
15. South Africa data center landscape market investments are classified into IT, power, cooling, and general construction services, with sizing and forecast.
16. A comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, growth rate, potential opportunities, growth restraints, and prospects for the industry.
17. Business overview and product offerings of prominent IT infrastructure providers, construction contractors, support infrastructure providers, and investors operating in the industry.
18. A transparent research methodology and the analysis of the demand and supply aspects of the market.

SOUTH AFRICA DATA CENTER MARKET VENDOR LANDSCAPE

1. The South Africa data center market has the presence of several major colocation data center operators, including Africa Data Centres, Digital Parks Africa, Equinix, NTT DATA, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), Teraco (Digital Realty), and Vantage Data Centers. Some existing data center operators have expanded their facilities across the country, with new developments expected to become operational during the forecast period.
2. The market has a presence of several major cloud operators, which include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Huawei Cloud, Microsoft, and Oracle Cloud.
3. In July 2025, NVIDIA announced the signing of a partnership deal with Cassava Technologies to build AI-ready data centers across African countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco, for a total investment of around $700 million. Additionally, the first phase of its South Africa AI-ready data center, launched in June, hosts around 3,000 Nvidia GPUs.
4. In the South Africa data center market, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), joint ventures (JVs), and strategic partnerships are among the major activities through which operators grow their portfolios and their presence across the country. For instance, in March 2025, Vantage Data Centers announced a 50:50 partnership with Attacq, a real estate developer, to construct a data center in Johannesburg. The project, involving an investment of around $34 million, will provide around 111,546 square feet of space and around 80 MW of power capacity.

EXISTING VS. UPCOMING DATA CENTERS

1. Existing Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)
2. Johannesburg
3. Other Cities
4. List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (Area and Power Capacity)
5. Johannesburg
6. Other Cities

REPORT COVERAGE:

This report analyses the South Africa data center market share. It elaboratively analyses the existing and upcoming facilities and investments in IT, electrical, mechanical infrastructure, cooling systems, general construction, and tier standards. It discusses market sizing and investment estimation for different segments. The segmentation includes:

1. IT Infrastructure
2. Server Infrastructure
3. Storage Infrastructure
4. Network Infrastructure
5. Electrical Infrastructure
6. UPS Systems
7. Generators
8. Transfer Switches & Switchgears
9. PDUs
10. Other Electrical Infrastructure
11. Mechanical Infrastructure
12. Cooling Systems
13. Rack Cabinets
14. Other Mechanical Infrastructure
15. Cooling Systems
16. CRAC and CRAH Units
17. Chiller Units
18. Cooling Towers, Condensers and Dry Coolers
19. Other Cooling Units
20. General Construction
21. Core & Shell Development
22. Installation & commissioning Services
23. Building & Engineering Design
24. Fire Detection & Suppression Systems
25. Physical Security
26. Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)
27. Tier Standard
28. Tier I & Tier II
29. Tier III
30. Tier IV
31. Geography
32. Johannesburg
33. Other Cities

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

1. IT INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDERS: Atos, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Hitachi Vantara, Huawei Technologies, IBM, Lenovo, NVIDIA, and ZTE.
2. DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTORS & SUB-CONTRACTORS: Abbeydale, AECOM, Arup, B2 Architects, EDS Engineering, H&MV Engineering, Ingenium, ISF Group, ISG, LYT Architecture, Master Power Technologies, MWK Engineering, Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), Royal HaskoningDHV, Tri-Star Construction, and WBHO Construction.
3. SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDERS: ABB, Alfa Laval, Caterpillar, Cummins, Delta Electronics, Eaton, Evapco, Johnson Controls, Legrand, nVent, Piller Power Systems, Rittal, Rolls-Royce, Schneider Electric, Siemens, STULZ, and Vertiv
4. DATA CENTER INVESTORS: Africa Data Centres, Digital Parks Africa, Equinix, Microsoft, NTT DATA, Open Access Data Centres, Teraco (A Digital Realty Company) and Vantage Data Centers.
5. NEW ENTRANTS: Paratus Namibia