NAIROBI, 23 Sept. - (ANA) - A $1 billion data center project in Kenya that was supposed to offer a blueprint for the US on how to leverage tech giants and allies to fend off China in a burgeoning tech race has languished, Semafor can reveal.

 

The project, earmarked for a site in the Great Rift Valley around 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Nairobi, was announced to much fanfare in May 2024 by Microsoft and the Emirati artificial intelligence firm G42. 

 

Clean power sourced from geothermal energy would drive the rollout of Microsoft’s cloud services in East Africa.

 

At the time, Microsoft said the first phase of the project was expected to be operational in May 2026. But on a visit in August to the site, only months before that deadline, a Semafor team found developers have yet to break ground. Two people with direct knowledge of the project said — 15 months after the deal was inked — G42, Microsoft, and the Kenyan government still have not worked out the business case for the project. 

 

Meanwhile, political momentum has been sapped by the Trump administration focusing on far greater AI ambitions.     - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/23 September 2025 - - -