Africa AI Datacenter Tracker

Cosmas Data City Cape Town Campus

Announced

Also known as: CDC Cape Town · Cavaleros CDC Cape Town · Cavaleros Group Cape Town DC1

Cape Town, Western Cape, ZA city coords Last verified: 29 June 2026 Report a correction

Why this matters

Editorial assessment — see full analysis below.

Overview

This record replaces the provisional `cavaleros-cape-town-dc1` identity. Cavaleros' operator statement identifies the project as the CDC Cape Town campus, part of the Cosmas Data City campus programme. The operator statement describes CDC Cape Town as a 100-hectare development with over 360MVA of power availability. Daily Maverick reports the Cape Town project as 360MW and places it within a broader set of four Cape Town data-centre developments totalling 580MW of reported demand. The Microsoft link remains unconfirmed. Do not cite Microsoft as a tenant or anchor customer unless a primary source confirms it. The Cavaleros LinkedIn evidence is also preserved as a local text snapshot in `data/sources/2026-Cavaleros-Cosmas-Data-City-LinkedIn.md` because social posts can be difficult to retrieve reproducibly.

Capacity

What is IT load? →
IT load — current
0 MW

No operational load is disclosed; the campus is tracked as announced rather than operational.

estimated ≈ [s1] [s2]
Total facility power
360 MW

Daily Maverick reports 360MW; Cavaleros reports over 360MVA power availability. Stored as MW-equivalent pending schema support for MVA.

reported [s1] [s2]
Land area
100 ha
reported [s2]

Infrastructure

Tier guide →
Tier certification
UNKNOWN
Connectivity
Existing availability zones
reported [s2]
AI cooling readiness
Not assessed

Cooling adequacy for AI workloads has not been independently assessed for this facility.

AI data centres require ~100 kW/rack (10× conventional). Liquid cooling at rack level is the key differentiator. Learn more →

Power

PPAs & wheeling →
Grid utility
City of Cape Town
Grid carbon intensity
900 g CO₂/kWh

City of Cape Town supply is ultimately Eskom-backed for large grid loads; grid-level figure, not facility-specific.

estimated ≈ [s1]

Grid carbon context

900 g CO₂/kWh — Very high — coal-heavy grid

2.1× the global average (436 g CO₂/kWh, IEA 2022). Compare: France ~60, UK ~175, US ~400 g CO₂/kWh.

Grid-level estimate. PPAs and on-site renewables may reduce the effective carbon footprint.

Water

Water stress →
Water source
unknown
Water stress (WRI)
high

Governance

Data residency →
Jurisdiction
South Africa

Workload Profile

Training vs inference →
General Cloud Colocation

Cavaleros describes the CDC campuses as hyperscale-capable infrastructure for cloud, AI, Neo Cloud, and enterprise deployments. No reviewed source confirms a specific AI tenant, GPU cluster, or live AI training deployment for the Cape Town campus.

Claims

About claims →

Claims are tracked separately from sourced facts because their status is contested or evolving. A disputed claim is not the same as a confirmed fact.

c1 Anchor tenant Microsoft
disputed ⚠

Denial status: Unaddressed by parties

Daily Maverick reports that the 360MW Cape Town project is thought to be linked to Microsoft, while also stating that neither Cavaleros nor Microsoft has confirmed or denied the link.

First observed: 2026-04-28 Last reviewed: 2026-06-29
[s1]
c2 Other
reported

Operator-supplied LinkedIn text describes the Cape Town campus as positioned within existing availability zones and supported by over 360MVA of power availability.

First observed: 2026-06-29 Last reviewed: 2026-06-29
[s2]

Constraints

About constraints →
Grid capacity high

Daily Maverick reports the Cape Town project as 360MW; the Cavaleros operator statement describes over 360MVA power availability. Either figure is material relative to Cape Town's reported 1,676MW maximum electricity demand.

[s1] [s2]
Water stress high

Daily Maverick raises unresolved questions about water demand for new Cape Town data centres, and no reviewed Cavaleros source discloses cooling technology, water source, or projected consumption.

[s1]

Editorial assessment

high significance

This section is the maintainer's interpretation, not a sourced claim. Assessed by project-maintainer on 2026-06-29.

Why this matters

  • Operator statement identifies the project as CDC Cape Town, a 100-hectare campus with over 360MVA of power availability.
  • Material grid implications relative to Cape Town's reported 1,676MW maximum electricity demand.
  • Microsoft anchor link remains unconfirmed and should not be treated as fact.

Full assessment

If built as announced, the CDC Cape Town Campus would be one of Cape Town's largest data-centre developments and a major power-ready hyperscale campus in South Africa's Western Cape cloud market.

Entities

Operator

Cavaleros Group

Owner

Cavaleros Group

Location

Cape Town, Western Cape, ZA

-33.9249, 18.4241

city precision

Timeline

Expected operational
1 January 2027

Status History

  1. announced

    2025-01-01

    Announcement date approximate; Daily Maverick says Cavaleros announced the Cape Town plan in the previous year.

Record

ID
cavaleros-cdc-cape-town-campus
First tracked
2026-05-11
Last verified
2026-06-29

Sources

  1. s1
    New data centres set to swallow 34% of Cape Town's current electricity supply — Daily Maverick
    local journalism retrieved 2026-06-29 not yet archived
  2. s2
    The Cavaleros Group Announces Major Data Centre Campus Developments in Partnership with Knight Frank and Future-Tech — Cavaleros Group LinkedIn
    social media retrieved 2026-06-29 not yet archived
About these source tiers
local journalism

Local news outlets; variable editorial standards, used for leads and corroboration.

social media

LinkedIn posts, job listings, tweets — lowest trust, used only as a lead.

Full ranking: Methodology · Glossary

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