Airtel’s Nxtra data centre in Kenya on track for July 2027
Airtel has set a new completion target of July 2027 for its Nxtra data centre in Tatu City, pushing back the timeline from the first-quarter 2027 date given when construction broke ground in September 2025.
The $150 million facility is expected to become East Africa’s largest data centre, roughly ten times the size of any existing regional facility, according to Airtel.
The campus will provide hosting capacity for large-scale artificial intelligence applications and other data-intensive digital services once complete.
Airtel broke ground on the Nxtra project in September 2025 at a ceremony attended by Kenya’s ICT cabinet secretary William Kabogo, Communications Authority assistant director for compliance Peter Ikumilu, Nxtra Africa CEO Yashnath Issur and then Airtel Kenya managing director Ashish Malhotra.
The facility was designed around a planned 44MW power capacity, delivered in two 22MW phases, with a target power usage effectiveness (PUE) below 1.4 and an availability target of 99.999%. GPU-ready racks were built into the design to support AI workloads. The site sits inside Tatu City’s Special Economic Zone, drawing power from a dedicated 135MVA substation supplemented by on-site solar generation.
The Nairobi build forms part of a larger capital push behind Nxtra Data, Airtel’s data centre subsidiary. In April, Airtel confirmed a $1 billion investment into Nxtra with participation from Alpha Wave Global, The Carlyle Group and Anchorage Capital Group, valuing the subsidiary at $3.1 billion while Airtel retains a controlling stake. The funding is primarily earmarked for scaling Nxtra’s capacity in India from 300MW to 1GW, though Airtel said it would also support the company’s broader infrastructure push, including active builds in Africa. Nxtra has additionally partnered with Google on a gigawatt-scale AI data centre campus in India backed by $15 billion in investment. Beyond Nairobi, Airtel has flagged further African expansion in Lagos, Kinshasa, Mombasa, Kampala and Dar es Salaam.
Newly appointed Airtel Kenya managing director Djibril Tobe said several global technology firms are already in talks to host on the Nairobi facility.
“All the big players like Google, Microsoft, they’re already talking to us. Oracle and Apple are also talking to us to be able to be hosted on that data centre, because that will make their services seamless. They can mirror all the servers within that data centre, and that will enhance the customer experience,” Tobe said.
The technology companies have, however, not confirmed the discussions.
Tobe was speaking on Monday at the launch of Bizna Wallet, a dedicated business wallet designed to help small businesses manage their finances through a digital solution.
If delivered on the new timeline, Nxtra would still surpass iXAfrica’s 22.5MW Nairobi facility as East Africa’s largest publicly announced data centre by installed capacity.
The data centre forms part of a wider Airtel infrastructure push that also includes Bizna Wallet’s launch and a direct-to-cell satellite connectivity partnership with SpaceX targeting underserved areas.
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