Africa AI Datacenter Tracker

Vantage Data Centers Waterfall City

Announced Mid-scale
Midrand, Gauteng, ZA city coords Last verified: 11 May 2026 Report a correction

Overview

Vantage Data Centers is building a facility at Waterfall City, a large mixed-use development in Midrand, Gauteng. The company has secured 87MW of power from SolarAfrica under a power purchase agreement. Vantage is a US-headquartered hyperscale data centre developer with campuses across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The Waterfall City site represents its South African entry. Waterfall City sits in the Midrand corridor between Johannesburg and Pretoria — the same general zone as the ADC Midrand campus and within the Ekurhuleni/Midrand industrial belt.

Capacity

What is IT load? →
IT load — full buildout
87 MW

87MW is the figure reported as secured from SolarAfrica; total facility capacity may differ.

reported [s1]

Power in context

87 MW IT load ≈ 252,300 South African households (avg 250 kWh/month)

0.29% of South Africa's effective grid capacity (~30 GW available)

Comparable to a large regional cloud facility

About IT load · Announced vs operational MW

Infrastructure

Tier guide →
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
Eskom
Grid carbon intensity
900 g CO₂/kWh

Eskom grid average ~900 gCO₂/kWh per Eskom Integrated Reports (2022-23). Grid-level figure. 100% renewable PPA offsets but does not change grid carbon intensity rating.

estimated ≈ [s1]
Renewable % (reported)
100%
PPA partners
SolarAfrica
reported [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
municipal
Water stress (WRI)
high

Governance

Data residency →
Jurisdiction
South Africa

Workload Profile

Training vs inference →
General Cloud Colocation

Vantage is a hyperscale-focused colocation provider. Workload profile inferred from corporate strategy; no AI-specific capacity publicly disclosed for this site.

Entities

Operator

Vantage Data Centers

Owner

Vantage Data Centers

Location

Midrand, Gauteng, ZA

-26.0174, 28.1041

city precision

Status History

  1. announced

    2026-02-13

    Reported in UCT AI Initiative article; power procurement from SolarAfrica confirmed.

Record

ID
vantage-waterfall-city
First tracked
2026-05-11
Last verified
2026-05-11

Sources

  1. s1
    Wheeling and dealing behind South Africa's AI factories — UCT AI Initiative
    trade press retrieved 2026-05-11 not yet archived
About these source tiers
trade press

Specialist outlets (DatacenterDynamics, DataCenter Knowledge, etc.) with editorial standards.

Full ranking: Methodology · Glossary

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