US data centre equipment maker Vertiv has signed a memorandum of understanding with Cybastion, a US technology company that works on government digitalisation programmes in Africa, to pursue data centre and AI infrastructure projects in 6 North, West and Central African countries.
The agreement, announced in Marrakech, Morocco, on 5 October 2026, covers Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad and Gabon. Both companies say they already have active engagements in those markets. No projects, sites, contract values or timelines were disclosed.
Getting in earlier on state projects
The logic of the deal is access. Vertiv sells power, cooling and critical infrastructure equipment; Cybastion brings relationships with governments running national digital transformation programmes. The pairing is meant to put Vertiv’s equipment into those programmes at the planning stage rather than at tender.
“As AI, cloud and sovereign digital infrastructure investments accelerate across Africa, customers are increasingly seeking end-to-end ecosystems rather than standalone technology providers,” said Zineb Kamri, regional director for Northwest Africa at Vertiv. She said the arrangement would give the company “access to additional prospects”.
Kamri said Cybastion’s existing footprint in West and Central Africa complements Vertiv’s regional growth plans, and singled out Morocco as “a key market, especially given its ambition to become a regional digital hub and attract hyperscale and AI infrastructure investments”.
Dr Thierry Wandji, CEO of Cybastion, framed the deal around sovereignty. He said the partnership “strengthens our ability to rapidly deploy the critical digital infrastructure needed to help African countries move toward digital sovereignty”.
Vertiv’s North and West African push
Vertiv has been building its presence in North Africa this year. In April it installed chilled-water cooling at Inwi’s Rabat data centre, and in June Open Access Data Centres standardised on Vertiv at its Johannesburg facility.
An MoU is a framework rather than a contract. The test will be whether named government data centre projects in any of the 6 countries follow suit, and which of the two companies leads them.
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