Madagascar billionaire Hassanein Hiridjee expands Senegal data center to meet AI demand

Stellarix, the data center company owned by Madagascar billionaire Hassanein Hiridjee's Axian Group, is expanding its facility in Senegal to meet rising demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

The company said the expansion would increase hosting capacity for businesses and critical workloads while supporting the development of sovereign cloud services and AI applications. It did not disclose how much capacity it is adding or how much it is investing.

French engineering firm Snef, SERTEM Groupe and Kent Data Centres contributed to the expansion.

Stellarix said the added capacity would make Senegal's digital infrastructure more resilient and support its digital sovereignty, the push by governments to keep sensitive data and critical computing inside their own borders.

Building the backbone for AI

Stellarix develops, owns and runs carrier-neutral, Tier III-certified data centers that offer colocation and interconnection services to local and international customers. The company has facilities either operating or under development in Senegal, Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire and Madagascar.

Hiridjee has long argued that most of Africa still lacks the data centers its digital economy needs. Speaking to Semafor Africa when Stellarix was expanding beyond its first markets, he said "there are still around 35 countries to address."

That gap is growing more important as companies and governments adopt AI. Training and running AI models requires large amounts of computing power and reliable electricity, and most African countries have only a fraction of the data center capacity found in Europe, Asia or the United States.

Senegal at the center of Axian's plans

The Senegal expansion fits into a broader buildout by Axian in the West African country, where Hiridjee has stakes across telecoms, energy and digital infrastructure.

Axian Telecom operates mobile and fixed broadband services in Senegal under its Yas brand. The company has secured up to €170 million, or about $184 million, from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to extend its mobile and fiber networks in Senegal and Kenya.

Its energy arm is building in the country as well. Axian Energy has reached financial close on the NEA Kolda project in southern Senegal, a 60-megawatt solar farm with 72 megawatt-hours of battery storage. It is the largest solar-plus-storage facility in West Africa.

The data center business benefits from both. Data centers depend on fast fiber connections and large amounts of electricity, and Axian now has interests in all three in Senegal.

A $730 million expansion push

Hiridjee has drawn about $730 million from development finance institutions since 2025 to fund Axian's expansion from its home market in Madagascar across Africa. One of those agreements, with French development lender Proparco, covers telecom networks, data centers, solar generation, mini-grids and electric vehicle charging over three years.

Axian Telecom now operates in 11 markets: Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Togo, Comoros, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Réunion and Mayotte. Hiridjee has said the group ranks sixth among African operators by subscribers and third by infrastructure, with about 3,500 towers.

Axian Energy has 350 megawatts of installed renewable capacity and is targeting 2 gigawatts by 2030.

Hiridjee, who runs Axian as chief executive, has turned what was once a Madagascar family business into one of Africa's most active investors in the infrastructure that underpins the digital economy.