A new market report released April 29 projects that the Middle East and Africa data center colocation market will grow 28.5 percent in 2026 alone, reaching 4.9 billion dollars this year and 11.1 billion dollars by 2030. The growth is driven almost entirely by AI workloads, hyperscaler expansions, and government-backed sovereign cloud strategies.
In the Gulf, players like Khazna (Mubadala), Gulf Data Hub, G42, e& (Etisalat), and du are racing to expand Abu Dhabi and Dubai capacity, while Saudi Telecom Company, DataVolt, and Colt DCS are developing major colocation footprints in Riyadh. Saudi Aramco has also formalized cloud partnerships with hyperscalers, and G42 has signed cloud deals with several global tech companies.
Africa tells a more complex story. South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya have the most developed grids, but chronic power reliability issues most visibly Eskom load shedding continue to constrain growth. The flip side is that falling solar and battery storage prices are now enabling off-grid and hybrid colocation models, especially across the Sahel and Southern Africa, where renewable potential is enormous. For investors, the next five years look like a once-in-a-generation infrastructure window.
