Africa’s largest wireless carrier MTN Group Ltd is in talks with US and European firms to build out data centre’s on the continent to power artificial intelligence services, said CEO Ralph Mupita in an interview.
The Johannesburg-based group will directly fund part of the investment needed to expand the AI data centre build-out on the continent, and is in discussions with potential global partners, said Mupita.
The plan is to build out facilities and sign up tenants to supply AI compute, then rent out capacity to other businesses and governments across the continent.
The group is also considering kitting out data centres with its own hardware. MTN has started building its first data centre in Nigeria at an estimated cost of $240 million.
“We are now in the commercial negotiation phase and shortlisting partners who can help us scale,” said Mupita.
“Our goal is to conclude these partnerships within the
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