Four separate companies are pouring more than $400 million combined into new Nairobi data centres this year, the clearest sign yet that Kenya’s capital has become East Africa’s digital infrastructure hub. Digital Realty switched on its $80 million Nairobi Two (NBO2) facility in Karen on September 7, adding 6.4 megawatts of capacity next to its existing campus. Airtel Kenya broke ground on its own centre in August, targeting a KES 19 billion (about $147 million) investment. Africa Data Centres and iXAfrica are separately expanding by tens of millions more. The driver behind all of it is a scramble to host the computing power that artificial intelligence and cloud services now demand.
What’s actually being built
At least four major projects are underway or newly completed in and around Nairobi as of September 2026:
- Digital Realty — Nairobi Two (NBO2), Karen: $80 million, 6.4MW of new capacity, opened September 7, 2026. Combined with the existing Nairobi One (NBO1) facility 300 metres away, the campus now offers more than 34,000 square metres of space and over 14MW of total IT power. NBO2 has LEED Silver certification and ISO 27001/PCI-DSS compliance, with access to more than 100 networks and two internet exchange points.
- Airtel Kenya: broke ground on a new Nairobi facility in early August 2026, targeting commissioning by July 2027, at an estimated cost of KES 19 billion (about $147 million).
- Africa Data Centres (Cassava Technologies): building a second Nairobi facility with up to 20 megawatts of capacity and has begun securing land for a third, with total investment reported to exceed $200 million as it works to double the country’s overall data centre capacity.
- iXAfrica: secured financing from Rand Merchant Bank for a 20-megawatt expansion and has agreed to acquire 11 acres for a second Nairobi campus. It partnered with Oracle in January 2026 to host Kenya’s first public cloud region, giving local businesses direct access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure without routing data overseas.
Why is everyone building in Nairobi right now?
The short answer is artificial intelligence. Training and running AI models requires far more computing power and storage than the web-hosting and mobile-money workloads that built Kenya’s earlier data centre industry. Cloud providers, telecoms and enterprises now need that capacity hosted locally rather than routed through Europe or the Middle East, both for speed and, increasingly, for data-sovereignty reasons.
Nairobi’s existing advantages made it the obvious place to build. The city already sits on multiple undersea cable landing routes, hosts two internet exchange points, and has an established base of carrier-neutral facilities dating back to iColo’s 2019 launch of NBO1 — the site Digital Realty has since absorbed into its global network. On September 9, Kenyan and American officials met to discuss deepening cooperation on AI, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure, another sign of how central the sector has become to Kenya’s economic planning.
Local demand is climbing too. Safaricom alone has committed more than $500 million to its own AI infrastructure push, and Kenya’s mobile money penetration — already above 90 percent — keeps generating the kind of transaction and data volumes that need somewhere to live.
How big is Kenya’s data centre market?
Estimates vary by research firm, but the direction is consistent: one market analysis puts Kenya’s data centre sector at roughly $266 million in 2025, projecting it could reach $805 million by 2031. As of last year there were already eight operating data centres in Nairobi with seven more in the pipeline — a number this year’s wave of announcements has now pushed higher still. The build-out is part of a broader run of good news for Kenya’s investment climate this year, coming just days after the Nairobi Securities Exchange hit its own record high.
What it means for ordinary Kenyans and businesses
For most people, the direct effect won’t be visible overnight. But locally hosted capacity generally means faster load times for cloud-based apps and AI tools, since data no longer has to make a round trip to servers in Europe or elsewhere. For Kenyan businesses, it lowers the barrier to using enterprise cloud services and, with iXAfrica’s Oracle partnership, gives some companies a first option to keep sensitive data inside the country entirely — a growing requirement for banks, government contractors and health providers.
Each new facility also needs staff to build and run it: construction crews in the short term, then engineers, technicians and security personnel once operational. Kenya’s tech sector has positioned itself as a magnet for this kind of investment partly because it can supply some of that skilled labour locally — part of the same push behind efforts like the Universal Service Council’s drive to boost locally assembled devices — though industry voices caution the pipeline of specialised data-centre technicians still needs to grow to keep pace with the building boom.
The catch: power, skills and who really benefits
Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy has framed the sector’s growth as central to the country’s bid to become East Africa’s digital hub.
The boom isn’t without friction. Data centres, particularly ones built for AI workloads, are heavy electricity consumers, and some large facilities are exploring “power wheeling” — buying electricity directly from independent producers and moving it across the grid rather than purchasing through Kenya Power. That’s raised questions in industry circles about whether ordinary electricity customers and Kenya Power’s own finances benefit as much from the boom as the companies building the facilities do.
There’s also a policy dimension. Industry analysts say the next phase of Kenya’s data centre growth will depend less on attracting more investment and more on whether the country can guarantee reliable power, enough skilled workers and supportive regulation to sustain an increasingly data-hungry digital economy.
FAQ
How much is being invested in Nairobi’s data centres in 2026?
At least $400 million combined across four major projects — Digital Realty’s $80 million NBO2, Airtel Kenya’s roughly $147 million facility, Africa Data Centres’ $200 million-plus expansion, and iXAfrica’s Rand Merchant Bank-financed 20MW build-out.
What is Digital Realty’s Nairobi Two (NBO2)?
It’s a 6.4-megawatt data centre in Karen that opened September 7, 2026, sitting about 300 metres from Digital Realty’s existing Nairobi One facility. Together they form a campus with more than 14 megawatts of IT power capacity.
Why is so much data centre investment going to Nairobi specifically?
Nairobi already has undersea cable connectivity, internet exchange points and an established base of carrier-neutral facilities, plus growing demand from AI, cloud and fintech companies that need infrastructure hosted locally rather than overseas.
Will the data centre boom create jobs in Kenya?
Yes, in construction in the near term and in operations, engineering and security roles once facilities go live, though none of the companies involved has published exact hiring figures for these newest projects.
Does this affect ordinary internet users in Kenya?
Indirectly. More locally hosted capacity can mean faster performance for cloud and AI services and keeps more Kenyan data inside the country, though the practical benefit depends on individual internet service providers and cloud platforms building on top of this infrastructure.
By the 254.ke Newsroom
