{
  "id": 12138453,
  "title": "Land availability gives SA edge in data centre race",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/land-availability-gives-sa-edge-in-data-centre-race",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-05T10:33:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ITWeb",
    "slug": "itweb",
    "url": "https://www.itweb.co.za/article/land-availability-gives-sa-edge-in-data-centre-race/raYAyqorDmRMJ38N"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "South Africa is positioning itself as a prime market for the next wave of data center expansion in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, according to an analysis by data center market research firm DC Byte. The study highlights that South Africa's availability of land could give it an edge over established European data center hubs, which are facing growing constraints.\n\nDC Byte's lead analyst, Christian Tshishiku, emphasized that the EMEA region has 93GW of IT capacity, with almost a quarter of this concentrated in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, collectively known as FLAP-D. While these established hubs remain central to the region's digital infrastructure, the analysts note that power and land constraints are prompting developers and customers to explore alternative locations, including emerging markets like South Africa.\n\nTshishiku believes that South Africa's potential as a data center hub is strengthened by its land availability, which could be a significant advantage as data center requirements shift towards artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. AI infrastructure demands large amounts of power concentrated in individual facilities or campuses, and the availability of physical space could become a key advantage for Africa's data center market.\n\nHowever, the availability of land alone is not enough to ensure the success of a data center project. Operators must also secure sufficient power and assess how quickly that power can be delivered. The issue is not just whether electricity is available, but whether the required capacity can be delivered within a limited timeframe, often within 12 to 24 months. This has particular relevance for South Africa, where the future expansion of data center capacity depends on the ability to match new developments with available electricity infrastructure.\n\nWhile South Africa's electricity supply has become more stable following a period of load-shedding, constraints around grid capacity, transmission infrastructure and location-specific availability remain. Nevertheless, the country has become an attractive location for data center expansion, with major investments from established players and hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft.",
  "summary": "South Africa is identified as among the emerging data centre markets competing for capacity, as established EMEA hubs face growing land and power constraints.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}