Mombasa to Get Sh194 Billion AI Data Centre

Kenya could be getting a $1.5 billion AI data centre in Mombasa.

Amaco wants its Hercules data centre to run without taking a single megawatt from Kenya's national grid. Instead, Amaco plans to bring its own power plant, floating just off the Mombasa coast.

That solves a problem that has already stalled another major data centre project in Kenya.

In May 2024, Microsoft and Abu Dhabi's G42 announced a $1 billion investment in a data centre campus powered by geothermal energy from Olkaria. The announcement was made alongside President William Ruto in Washington and was described as the largest single private-sector digital investment in Kenya's history.

Two years later, that project has not moved forward. Ruto has since acknowledged the problem publicly: running it at full scale would put too much pressure on Kenya's electricity supply.

Amaco's answer is to avoid the grid altogether.

They have signed a cooperation agreement with US energy firm GE Vernova to supply gas turbines for an offshore power barge. The barge would use liquefied natural gas to generate electricity specifically for Hercules, rather than connecting the data centre to Kenya Power's network.

Amaco is considering two locations in Mombasa, Dongo Kundu and Kilindini. Both sit close to the Port of Mombasa and the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone, while the wider coast is already a major landing point for submarine cables carrying international internet traffic into East Africa.

They are expecting industrial activity around the Special Economic Zone to keep growing, giving the project a wider ecosystem to plug into.