US-listed data centre operator Equinix doubles down on South Africa

Global data centre operator Equinix is planning to build 160MW of additional data centre capacity in South Africa as part of a R7.5-billion investment push, having acquired land in Johannesburg and Cape Town totalling R890-million.

The Nasdaq-listed firm, which opened its first South African data centre in Johannesburg in 2024, has now secured 327 000m² of land across the two cities, MD for South Africa Sandile Dube told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

“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 160MW of new capacity comes on top of 172MW that Equinix already has under construction, significantly expanding the company’s South African footprint.

Equinix entered Africa through its US$320-million acquisition of Nigeria’s MainOne Cable Co and began building its first Johannesburg facility — a $160-million data centre in Isando on the East Rand — in 2022. That facility, known as JN1, opened in 2024 with 1 860m² of rack space and 4MW of IT load.

The Cape Town land purchase marks a new geographic front for Equinix in South Africa. Until now, its local operations have been concentrated in Gauteng.

Big investments

Equinix is far from alone in betting on South Africa’s data centre sector. Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have both invested heavily in cloud and AI infrastructure in the country. Vantage Data Centers is building a major campus in Johannesburg with an eventual capacity of 80MW. Africa Data Centres, NTT Data and Teraco — South Africa’s largest data centre operator — are also expanding.

South Africa accounts for about three-quarters of Africa’s total data centre capacity, though the continent as a whole hosts just 409MW of operational capacity — less than 1% of the global total, according to BloombergNEF.

Read: Biggest data centres in South Africa — and who owns them

The market is projected to grow from about $2.6-billion in 2025 to more than $5-billion by 2031, according to research firm Arizton Advisory & Intelligence.

In February, finance minister Enoch Godongwana designated data centres as critical infrastructure in his budget speech, placing them on the same footing as electricity, ports and transport networks — a move Dube welcomed at the time, saying digital infrastructure had become “as fundamental as water, gas and electricity”.

“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. Dube said the company is not yet in East Africa but would consider further continental expansion based on how its current investments perform.  — © 2026 NewsCentral Media