Vantage Data Centers, a large, US-headquartered data centre specialist, has announced it has earmarked R15-billion to build what it claims will be the largest data centre campus in Africa.

“The 80MW campus will help foster economic growth, stimulate job creation and lead the way in energy‐efficient design,” the company said on Wednesday.

The investment puts Vantage in direct competition with Teraco Data Environments, which has built several data centres on Johannesburg’s East Rand and continues to invest billions of rand in new infrastructure in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

Vantage is a global provider of “hyperscale” (very large) data centre campuses. It “carrier‐neutral” Johannesburg campus will include 60 000sq m of data space across three facilities once fully developed, “making it the largest on the continent”.

Antoine Boniface, president of Vantage Data Centers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said in the statement: “Johannesburg is the data centre hub for sub‐Saharan Africa due to its strategic location, IT ecosystem, fibre connectivity to the rest of Africa and the availability of renewable energy.

“We look forward to opening the doors of our first African facility to our customers and becoming part of the local community. Our first campus has a planned investment of more than R15-billion, and it will add jobs to impact the local economy positively.”

The Johannesburg campus will consist of three facilities across 30 acres.

The first phase of the campus, scheduled for completion by the third quarter of 2022, will include a 16MW building. “The design will follow Vantage’s standardised campus blueprint, which emphasises sustainable construction practices with industry‐leading power usage effectiveness. Incremental energy solutions will be prominent, including electric vehicle charging stations. The campus will be powered by its own on‐site, high‐voltage substation.”

From its US roots, Vantage first moved into two Canadian markets in early 2019 before expanding to six European markets in 2020 and to five in Asia-Pacific in 2021.