---
title: "How the AI era is reshaping South Africa’s data centres"
description: "In this part of our series, we look under the hood of the modern hyperscale data centre. It is no longer just a room of servers, but a complex industrial plant managing megawatts of power, rivers of coolant and the erratic heartbeat of artificial intelligence."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "POWER GUZZLERS"
author: "Lindsey Schutters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/lindsey-schutters-2/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-02-12-cloud-formations-how-data-centres-work/"
published: "2026-02-12T21:00:00"
updated: "2026-02-12T19:23:51"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 469
---

# How the AI era is reshaping South Africa’s data centres

> In this part of our series, we look under the hood of the modern hyperscale data centre. It is no longer just a room of servers, but a complex industrial plant managing megawatts of power, rivers of coolant and the erratic heartbeat of artificial intelligence.

By Lindsey Schutters · Published 12 February 2026, 23:00 SAST · Updated 12 February 2026, 21:23 SAST

## Key points
- Explore the transformation of data centres from simple server rooms to complex industrial plants fuelled by AI and massive power demands.
- Discover how the shift from North-South to East-West data flow is revolutionising AI training processes among thousands of GPUs.
- Uncover the renewable energy challenges, as South African operators like Teraco invest heavily in solar farms yet struggle to meet 100% green power needs.
- Learn about the high-stakes evolution of local infrastructure and the economics driving substantial investments in AI-capable facilities across South Africa.

## Content

Harnessing the world’s data through machine learning is a game of light, electrons and nanoscale processing. In the AI era, the *whoosh-whoosh* of cooling fans and water racing through kilometres of pipes has replaced the screech of dial-up.

For most of the cloud era, data moved North-South: a user (North) requested a file and a server (South) delivered it.

In the AI era, traffic moves East-West. When training a model, thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) work together simultaneously, sharing massive amounts of information with each other to ensure synchronised learning.

### **White heat of digital thought**

The byproduct of AI processing is intense heat. A single Nvidia H100 GPU requires 700W of cooling capacity just to function. When these are stacked into IT racks, you suddenly need to dissipate 40-120kW of heat in a space the size of a fridge. In water-scarce South Africa, this has forced a shift towards closed-loop systems where water never evaporates, keeping environmental losses negligible.

![DM How datacentres work](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/5D7YsE7bxupSGR8rh05FfSwUTfU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/HowModernDataCentresWork_Infographic1_144217.jpg)

*(Source: Daily Maverick)*

### **The power paradox**

A common myth suggests data centres can run on rooftop solar. In reality, on-site panels barely cover office lights. To power the actual IT load sustainably, South African operators use electricity wheeling. They invest in utility-scale wind and solar farms in the hinterlands, feed that energy into the national grid, and off-take an equivalent amount at the facility.

Leading the charge, Teraco has committed a massive R2-billion to build its own 120MW utility-scale solar farm in the Free State, while competitors like ADC and Vantage are securing long-term power purchase agreements to buy diverse renewable supply.

However, the renewables arithmetic is unforgiving. A 120MW solar plant does not equal 100% green power because the sun doesn’t always shine. Even massive utility-scale projects currently only cover roughly 30% to 50% of a facility’s total critical load. The paradox remains: while the industry is frantically building renewable capacity to offset its carbon footprint, the always-on demands of AI mean they must still balance these new green electrons with the steady, fossil-fuelled baseload of the national grid to ensure reliability.

![DM How datacentres work](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/KuyipFFbRCOkTnOyG52mdFho4s0=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/HowModernDataCentresWork_Infographic2_547798.jpg)

*(Source: Daily Maverick)*

### **Industrial evolution**

Because the national grid can be unreliable, local infrastructure must be a customised blend of solar, batteries and huge back-up generators to keep to the uptime commitments. This brownfield strategy of gutting and converting existing industrial warehouses has turned specialised real estate into a high-stakes game, with single plots in Cape Town now fetching upwards of R550-million (what Africa Data Centres paid for its CPT-1 facility).

As South Africa hosts more of these AI factories, the economics are shifting. Individual components like network switches are becoming 30% more efficient, but our demand for AI processing keeps total energy consumption climbing. The goal is a delicate balance: securing permits, wheeling renewable power to offset coal and managing water with clinical obsession.**DM**