Airtel has revised the completion timeline for its Nxtra data centre in Tatu City to July 2027, extending the project beyond its original first-quarter 2027 target. Once completed, the US$150 million facility is expected to become East Africa’s largest data centre, providing infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads, cloud computing and other data-intensive digital services.
The facility is being developed with a planned 44MW power capacity delivered in two 22MW phases, making it significantly larger than existing regional data centres. Airtel said the campus has been designed with GPU-ready racks for AI computing, a target power usage effectiveness below 1.4, 99.999% availability and power supplied through a dedicated 135MVA substation supported by on-site solar generation within Tatu City’s Special Economic Zone.
The Nairobi project is part of Airtel’s broader investment in Nxtra Data. Earlier this year, Airtel announced a US$1 billion investment into the subsidiary alongside Alpha Wave Global, The Carlyle Group and Anchorage Capital Group, valuing Nxtra at US$3.1 billion. While much of the funding will expand capacity in India, Airtel confirmed it will also support its growing data centre footprint across Africa, including planned developments in Lagos, Kinshasa, Mombasa, Kampala and Dar es Salaam.
Airtel Kenya Managing Director Djibril Tobe said several global technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Apple, are in discussions regarding the Nairobi facility. However, the companies have not publicly confirmed the talks. According to Tobe, local hosting would improve service delivery by enabling global platforms to mirror infrastructure closer to customers.
If completed on schedule, the Nxtra facility will overtake iXAfrica’s 22.5MW Nairobi data centre to become East Africa’s largest publicly announced data centre by installed capacity. The project also complements Airtel’s wider digital infrastructure strategy, which includes the launch of Bizna Wallet and its partnership with SpaceX to expand connectivity in underserved areas.
