MTN Group is advancing plans to build an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled data centre platform in Africa, as it positions its digital infrastructure business to capitalise on growing demand for cloud computing, enterprise services and AI.
In its H1 2026 financial results booklet published yesterday, the telecommunications group said MTN Digital Infrastructure has identified South Africa and Nigeria as the priority markets for the initial phase of its data centre strategy, in line with its Ambition 2030 objectives.
During the first half of the year, the business made progress on the investment, operating and partnership model for the platform, laying the groundwork for its rollout.
The strategy is aimed at supporting what MTN described as Africa’s growing requirements for cloud, enterprise and AI infrastructure.
“Priority markets have been identified, with South Africa and Nigeria selected for the initial phase of deployment,” MTN says.
The group notes the development of the platform is focused on creating infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly data-intensive workloads as demand for cloud and AI services accelerates across the continent.
A major development came after the reporting period, when MTN Digital Infrastructure entered into a strategic partnership with a UAE-backed data centre investment platform.
The partnership, Africa Data Hub, is intended to accelerate the development of AI-ready digital infrastructure platforms across Africa.
MTN says the new platform combines its African footprint, market knowledge and infrastructure assets with international investment backing and specialist data centre expertise.
“Africa Data Hub Holding Limited will serve as the platform through which future digital infrastructure opportunities will be developed and scaled across key African markets,” the group says.
The agreement represents a significant step in MTN’s plans to expand beyond connectivity infrastructure and participate more directly in the rapidly developing data centre and AI infrastructure market.
MTN points out that the partnership would support its ambition to meet rising demand for “cloud, enterprise and AI-enabled services across Africa”.
The data centre strategy comes as African businesses and governments increasingly shift workloads to cloud platforms, while demand for computing capacity rises because of AI adoption.
AI integration
MTN is also pursuing opportunities to integrate AI into telecommunications infrastructure.
Earlier this year, MTN Digital Infrastructure participated as a strategic investor in ODC’s Series A funding round, backing the development of AI-native radio access network (RAN) and edge intelligence platforms.
Since the investment, MTN says the two companies have progressed joint implementation planning.
“Active collaboration is underway to assess priority use cases, deployment opportunities and commercial models aligned to MTN’s digital infrastructure and Ambition 2030 objectives,” MTN says.
The focus on AI-native RAN and edge intelligence reflects a broader shift towards distributing computing closer to where data is generated rather than relying exclusively on centralised cloud infrastructure.
For MTN, this could create opportunities to deploy AI capabilities across its network infrastructure while developing new enterprise services based on edge computing.
The group’s data centre push also forms part of its broader Ambition 2030 strategy, which seeks to reposition MTN as a technology company providing digital services and infrastructure beyond traditional mobile connectivity.
South Africa and Nigeria are expected to be central to the initial data centre rollout because of their relatively mature digital markets, enterprise demand and existing MTN infrastructure footprint, the company notes.
Infrastructure opportunity
MTN says the Africa Data Hub partnership would provide a vehicle for expanding the strategy beyond the initial markets.
“The agreement marks a milestone in the execution of the group’s data centre strategy,” it says.
The group is now working to translate the investment and partnership structures developed during the reporting period into operational data centre projects, with AI capability becoming a key consideration in the design of the infrastructure.
The move places MTN among African telecommunications operators seeking to capture a greater share of the infrastructure opportunity created by cloud computing, AI and rising demand for high-performance computing capacity.
As AI adoption expands, the availability of reliable, scalable and geographically distributed data centre capacity is becoming increasingly important for enterprises deploying AI applications and data-intensive workloads across Africa.
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