Microsoft's $1 billion Kenya AI data center project hits a major hurdle as
the government says it would require switching off 'half the country' to meet power needs

Date:
Sun, 17 May 2026 01:05:00 +0000

Description:
Microsoft and G42 data center plans in Kenya face power capacity constraints as the national grid struggles with electricity demand requirements

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Kenya says its electricity grid cannot sustain the proposed one-gigawatt Microsoft facility demand President Ruto warns powering the project would require nationwide electricity
rationing measures The initial 100-megawatt phase already strains Olkaria geothermal output capacity A proposed Microsoft 1-gigawatt data center in Kenya would demand so much electricity that the nation simply cannot supply that power.

Microsoft and Abu Dhabi-based G42 announced the project in May 2024 during President Rutos official visit to Washington DC, promising a geothermal-powered cloud region in the Olkaria area of Kenyas Rift Valley region. However Kenyan President William Ruto recently told a Nairobi
audience that running this facility would force a terrible national choice. Latest Videos From You may like Nearly half of US data centers planned for 2026 canceled or delayed Utah just approved a data center twice the size of Manhattan that will consume more electricity than the entire state The data center debate rumbles on - here are the numbers behind People Over Profit Kenya goes dark if the data center comes up We would need to switch off half the country for the data center to be powered, President Ruto said.

The stark reality is that Kenya lacks enough spare megawatts for this ambitious technology project; its entire power grid cannot even handle the facilitys enormous electricity appetite.

Kenyas total national installed capacity sits between 3,000 and 3,200 megawatts from all sources combined.

Its peak electricity demand already reached 2,444 megawatts in January 2025, during regular daily usage across the country, meaning a full 1-gigawatt data center would consume roughly one-third of the nations total power supply. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro
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Even the first 100-megawatt phase would drain a significant share from the Olkaria geothermal complex, which currently produces only 950 megawatts
across all its individual power plants working together.

No extra capacity exists for such a massive new electricity user anywhere on the Kenyan grid. No solution in sight John Tanui, principal secretary at Kenya's Ministry of Information, told Bloomberg that the project has not been formally withdrawn from consideration yet. What to read next Oracle and
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He claims both parties are still discussing the project, because the scale of the data center they wanted to do still requires some structuring.

The Kenyan government will not shut off half the country for any single private facility operating within its borders.

Microsoft refuses to accept less power than its original billion-dollar plan demanded for that specific location.

A separate 60-megawatt project with local developer EcoCloud remains under active discussion right now as a smaller alternative, but the main billion-dollar Olkaria proposal is stalled over capacity disagreements and missing electrical infrastructure across Kenya.

Microsoft spent $1.5 billion on G42 in 2024 after G42 agreed to remove Huawei equipment under American pressure.

Microsoft president, Brad Smith, called the Kenya project the single biggest step forward for digital technology in the country's history - however, a
step that demands a third of a nation's electricity may not be a real step forward for Kenyan citizens.

A data center cannot be called progressive if it requires every other user to switch off their lights.

Nearly half of the US data center builds this year have been delayed or cancelled due to power shortages - and if Western economies are cancelling data centers due to power shortages, Africa, with its growing infrastructure needs, is likely not a region for power-hungry data center projects. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsofts-usd1-billion-kenya-ai-data-center-pro ject-hits-a-major-hurdle-as-the-government-says-it-would-require-switching-off -half-the-country-to-meet-power-needs


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