Vodafone Business, Elsewedy Electric and Cassava Technologies have partnered to establish Africa Data Centres Egypt, a project with targeted capacity of 200MW and total investment of up to $1 billion.
The project will initially provide 20MW of capacity over its first three years, with plans to expand towards 200MW. It is expected to attract about $200 million in foreign direct investment during its first phase and create up to 200 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs.
The facility will support Egypt’s digital infrastructure by increasing capacity for data hosting and processing, cloud services and other digital workloads.
The partners said it will also support efforts to localise advanced technologies and strengthen data sovereignty.
Separately, Vodafone Business and Cassava Technologies will develop what the companies describe as Egypt’s first sovereign AI data centre.
The facility will provide advanced computing capabilities, including NVIDIA technologies and GPU-as-a-Service, to support large-scale AI applications while enabling data to be hosted and processed locally.
Raafat Hendy, Egypt’s minister of communications and information technology, said the projects reflected the growth of the country’s ICT sector and increasing private-sector confidence in its digital economy.
According to Hindi, the partnerships demonstrate a shift in technology investment from providing digital services towards building advanced digital infrastructure and capabilities.
Hendy also highlighted the government’s focus on expanding data-centre capacity and developing the sector’s capabilities within Egypt.
The ministry is preparing a national data-centre strategy to assess Egypt’s future storage and computing requirements and establish a plan for developing the necessary capacity.
Mohamed Abdallah, CEO and managing director of Vodafone Egypt and regional head of international markets at Vodacom Group, said: “These partnerships reflect Vodafone’s commitment to its role as a long-term technology partner in supporting Egypt’s digital transformation and turning our investments into real engines of economic development. By developing digital infrastructure, supporting AI applications, and empowering vital sectors, we are contributing to attracting more investments, creating jobs, and growing digital exports.”
Egypt is seeking to expand its role as a regional hub for data centres, cloud services and artificial intelligence, supported by its international connectivity and growing demand for digital infrastructure.
The new projects add to that push, with the Africa Data Centres Egypt facility providing a planned path from 20MW to 200MW, while the separate sovereign AI initiative will provide local advanced computing capacity for AI workloads.
The developments also form part of a broader expansion of data-centre capacity across Africa as demand for cloud computing, AI and local data processing increases.
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