This article was first published on TechCabal Insights by Stephen Agwaibor
In May 2024, the Biden administration brokered a $1 billion deal between Microsoft and UAE-based G42 to build a geothermal-powered data centre in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. The overarching idea behind this deal was twofold: to strategically position Kenya as an anchor for East Africa’s AI ambitions and to check China’s growing digital influence in the region.However, by August 2025, the project had still not broken ground. Kenya’s President, William Ruto, recently signalled that the project was unlikely to continue. “To switch on that one data centre”, he said, “we would need to shut off power for half the country. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”The admission, an astonishing moment of clarity that appears reminiscent of buyer’s remorse, was a tacit acceptance that the government may have placed the cart before the horse. As Semafor reported, the government had to reconsider plans when it learned that the data centre would require at least a third of Kenya’s 3000 MW of installed capacity.A similar stalling has affected Kenyan chipmaker Semiconductor Technologies Limited (STL). The company had thrived through a “friend-shoring” partnership with the United States, which granted it access to grants, discounted raw materials, and a market for its products. A change in administration meant reneging on those agreements, and a business now fighting for its survival.
