Business
Data centre operator Equinix to build 160MW of additional capacity in South Africa
Data centre operator Equinix to build 160MW of additional capacity in South
About this update from Equinix, Inc.
Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX), a US-listed global data centre operator, plans to build 160MW of additional capacity in South Africa as part of a ZAR7.5bn ( $396mn ) investment, expanding its footprint in one of Africa’s fastest-growing digital infrastructure markets, Bloomberg reported. The company has acquired land in Johannesburg and Cape Town valued at ZAR890mn ( $47mn ), securing a combined 327,000m² to support future development, managing director for South Africa Sandile Dube told the news agency. “All investments are funded by our own balance sheet, and our intention is to do so with all of our future investments in South Africa,” Dube said. The planned expansion adds to 172MW of capacity already under construction, significantly increasing Equinix’s presence in the country. Equinix entered the African market through its $320mn acquisition of Nigeria’s MainOne Cable Company in 2021 and began building its first South African facility — the $160mn JN1 data centre in Isando — in 2022. The Johannesburg -based JN1 site opened in 2024 with 1,860m² of rack space and 4MW of IT load, marking the company’s initial operational footprint in the country. The acquisition of land in Cape Town signals geographic diversification beyond Gauteng, where most of South Africa’s data centre infrastructure is concentrated. Equinix’s expansion comes amid intensifying competition in South Africa’s data centre market, with major global players ramping up investment. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon Web Services , part of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), have both expanded cloud infrastructure in the country, while Vantage Data Centers is building a Johannesburg campus with planned capacity of 80MW. Local and international operators including Africa Data Centres , NTT Data (TYO:9613) and Teraco are also scaling up capacity. South Africa accounts for about three-quarters of Africa’s total data centre capacity, though the continent hosts just 409MW of operational capacity — less than 1% of the global total, according to BloombergNEF . The market is projected to grow from about $2.6bn in 2025 to more than $5bn by 2031, according to Arizton Advisory & Intelligence. “All the major hyperscalers have landed in South Africa,” Dube told Bloomberg . “The trend that we see from all the investors is to not only target the South African market, but also to target the African opportunity.” Equinix also has operations in West Africa through MainOne and may expand further on the continent, including into East Africa , depending on the performance of its current investments, Dube said. © 2026 bne IntelliNews, source Magazine