Hybrid cloud and sovereignty: Morocco announces a new 500 MW data center
July 11th 2025
The Moroccan government aims to make digital technology one of the pillars of socio-economic development by 2030. The government is investing in digital infrastructure to this end.
The Kingdom of Morocco plans to build a 500-megawatt data center powered by renewable energy. The initiative, announced by Digital Transition Minister Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni in an interview with Reuters , aims to strengthen the national cloud. It follows an initial installation launched at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, which has been offering hosting services to public and private organizations since January.
“Through this network of data centers, the kingdom asserts not only its digital sovereignty, but also its ambition to become a regional digital hub serving Africa ,” the minister said, quoted by Reuters in an article published on Wednesday, July 9.
As part of its “Digital Morocco 2030” roadmap, Morocco aims to develop a national hybrid cloud service offering, combining sovereign and public clouds, to meet the growing needs of the public and private sectors. The objective is both to ensure that sensitive Moroccan data remains stored on national territory, under Moroccan jurisdiction, and to prepare for the transition to digital solutions increasingly based exclusively on the cloud.
In a 2022 study, the World Bank recommended that governments prioritize the adoption of cloud services to accelerate their digital transformation and take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the global digital economy. According to the institution, these technologies reduce costs, rapidly increase system capacity, improve cybersecurity, and enable the processing of large amounts of data through artificial intelligence. It believes that hybrid solutions, combining public and private clouds, offer significant benefits for governments, citizens, and the private sector.
The World Bank cites the example of Rwanda, where, during the Covid-19 pandemic, a cloud-connected, artificial intelligence-assisted medical triage system helped address a shortage of healthcare workers. It also highlights the case of Singapore, which set up a private government cloud called “G-cloud” to meet security requirements. This system allows for a combination of public and private clouds, and each ministry can choose the solution that suits it.
Morocco’s cloud network remains in the structuring phase. While it is known that the new data center will be located in Dakhla, Western Sahara, several uncertainties remain regarding the project’s cost, the partners involved in its construction, the timeline, and its actual capacity.
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