Consortium plans 500MW of AI compute in Morocco
Naver, NVIDIA partner to deliver AI Infrastructure in Morocco
#Morocco #SouthKorea #datacentres - South Korea's technology giant Naver Corporation has formed a consortium with US AI chip provider NVIDIA, AI infrastructure specialist Nexus Core Systems, and international investment firm Lloyds Capital to build a 500 megawatt (MW) renewable energy-powered AI data centre in Morocco. The new facility will target sovereign cloud services across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The consortium leverages Morocco's strategic location just 15 kilometres from Europe with direct submarine fibre-optic cable connections to provide cost-effective AI infrastructure to European markets. Construction begins in Q4 2025 with a 40MW phase deploying NVIDIA's latest Blackwell GB200 GPUs.
SO WHAT? - According to Research & Markets the whole African continent’s data centre capacity will only reach 400MW by the end of this year, with Morocco accounting for 35 percent of that capacity (so, about 140MW). However, much more capacity is needed to meet the demand of the country’s Digital Morocco 2030 plan, So, the new Naver-backed consortium is both significant in terms of how it will help increase the country’s compute capacity and in how it will make Morocco an exporter of AI compute services to Africa, Europe and elsewhere.
Here are some key facts about the new consortium:
Seongnam-headquartered technology giant Naver Corp leads the consortium alongside US AI chip vendor NVIDIA, AI infrastructure company Nexus Core Systems, and Dubai-based investment firm Lloyds Capital to establish Morocco's largest AI compute facility.
The 500MW renewable energy-powered data centre will serve as a sovereign AI computing hub for the EMEA region, capitalising on Morocco's position 15 kilometres from Europe with multiple direct submarine fibre-optic cable connections providing low-latency access to European markets.
Construction commences in Q4 2025 with an initial deployment of 40MW AI infrastructure equipped with NVIDIA's Blackwell GB200 GPUs, with completion scheduled by year-end. The project is planned to scale in phases to reach capacity.
The consortium has secured a strategic renewable energy supply agreement via TAQA, ensuring stable and sustainable power for the facility, whilst maintaining competitive operating costs compared to European alternatives.
Naver subsidiary Naver Cloud will collaborate with Nexus Core Systems and Lloyds Capital to operate the data centre platform, offering fully integrated AI services and applications built on advanced cloud infrastructure optimised for high-density AI compute workloads.
The facility will adopt sovereign cloud and AI architecture ensuring data storage, processing and management remains entirely within local jurisdiction, addressing EMEA region emphasis on data sovereignty and compliance with GDPR and emerging AI governance standards.
ZOOM OUT - The formation of the Morocco AI data centre consortium is Naver Corp.’s second major announcement regarding the Middle East and North Africa this month. A week ago the South Korean digital services giant announced that it has now completed digital twin platforms for three major cities in Saudi Arabia, as part of a $100 million contract won in 2023. In May, Naver confirmed the formation of a new joint venture with the Kingdom’s National Housing Company (NHC) called Naver Innovation, that will develop super-app to provide public services leveraging the digital twins. The market entries into both Morocco and Saudi Arabia can be considered strategic and long term, paving the way for future opportunities.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]