American companies have secured a wave of billion-dollar data center and digital infrastructure contracts across Africa in recent months, outpacing Chinese rivals in a continent increasingly seen as the next frontier for artificial intelligence and cloud computing investment. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs confirmed on Sunday that American firms have closed 37 commercial transactions worth a combined $25.67 billion since the start of President Trump’s second term.
The largest of these deals was struck in Lesotho, where U.S. renewable energy firm Convalt Energy signed a $6.2 billion agreement to build a 1,200-megawatt pumped-storage hydropower facility alongside a 900-megawatt AI-focused data center. The project, described as the largest commercial transaction in the small southern African kingdom’s history, is expected to boost the country’s electricity generation capacity by roughly 1,600 percent and transform it into a net exporter of power to neighbouring grids.
In Gabon, U.S. firm Cybastion won a $100 million contract to build two data centers and a gas-to-power plant, directly outbidding Chinese telecoms giant Huawei for the project. The U.S. Embassy in Libreville said the deal builds on roughly $600 million in American business activity facilitated in the country over the past year. Cybastion also secured a separate $170 million contract in Ivory Coast covering a data center, a government digitalisation platform and a border surveillance system.
Officials frame the push as part of a broader strategic competition with Beijing for influence and market share on the continent. Annual U.S.-Africa trade currently stands at roughly $83.4 billion, dwarfed by China-Africa trade of around $348 billion, giving Washington strong incentive to close the gap through targeted, high-value technology partnerships rather than broad-based trade volume.
« Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States is assisting U.S. companies to find new markets and flourish in Africa, » said Assistant Secretary of State Frank Garcia, who contrasted the American approach with what he described as China’s tendency to « trap, coerce and undermine » African nations through opaque financing arrangements. Convalt Energy chief executive Hari Achuthan pointed to speed and integration as the U.S. competitive edge, saying American firms are « innovating faster, integrating hardware and software » while keeping a sharper focus on local customer needs.
Cybastion chief executive Dr. Thierry Wandji said African governments are increasingly prioritising « sovereign data centers » that keep sensitive national data within their own borders, alongside investment in local digital workforce development, a trend he said plays to the strengths of flexible American technology partners over state-backed Chinese conglomerates.
Analysts note that the surge in African data center investment is closely tied to the continent’s growing appetite for artificial intelligence infrastructure, cloud services and digital government platforms, sectors expected to expand rapidly over the coming decade as more African economies digitise public services and financial systems. Whether Washington can sustain this momentum against a well-resourced Chinese state apparatus, however, remains an open question that will likely shape the continent’s digital landscape for years to come.
