MTN in Talks With US, EU Firms on African AI Data Centers Deal

Africa’s largest wireless carrier MTN Group Ltd is in talks with US and European firms to build out data centers on the continent to power artificial intelligence services, said Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita in an interview.

The Johannesburg-based group will directly fund part of the investment needed to expand the AI data center build-out on the continent, and is in discussions with potential global partners, said Mupita. The plan is to build out facilities and sign up tenants to supply AI compute, then rent out capacity to other businesses and governments across the continent. The group is also considering kitting out data centers with its own hardware. MTN has started building its first data center in Nigeria at an estimated cost of $240 million.