Morocco’s most ambitious AI infrastructure project has moved past a critical milestone. The Casablanca-Settat regional council has formally dedicated 666 hectares of land at Nouaceur to a cluster of large-scale industrial projects, with the centrepiece being a next-generation AI data centre planned to deliver 500 megawatts of compute capacity.
The council adopted three major framework agreements on March 2, 2026, to develop the 666 hectares as industrial and logistics zones in Nouaceur. The land allocation directly clears the path for a project that has been in the works since mid-2024, when its backers first announced their Morocco ambitions.
The Consortium Behind the Build
South Korean internet giant Naver and US AI chip leader NVIDIA are at the heart of the consortium driving the 500MW infrastructure project. They are partnered with Nexus Core Systems, a specialist AI infrastructure company. The group first announced the consortium in June, with plans to build a next-generation AI data centre with a total projected capacity of 500 megawatts.
The project is estimated at $1.2 billion, and the consortium has settled on Nouaceur as the site. On the energy side, the consortium has signed a power supply contract with Casablanca-listed Taqa Morocco Group.
Why Nouaceur, Why Morocco
The site selection was not arbitrary. Morocco’s case, particularly the Casablanca region, rests on major geostrategic advantages: its proximity to Europe, just 15 kilometres across the Strait of Gibraltar, and its direct connections to several undersea fibre optic cables that guarantee high-speed international connectivity. For a facility designed to serve the EMEA region, that positioning matters enormously.
A delegation from NVIDIA visited Morocco in November to advance discussions around the project, signalling the chip giant’s commitment beyond just lending its name to the consortium.
The regional land move also fits into a broader restructuring of Nouaceur’s industrial profile. The Casablanca-Settat council’s effort is partly a response to severe pressure on industrial land supply, intensified by the recent demolition of several illegal warehouses in the region. The clearing of informal structures and replacement with structured industrial zones is repositioning Nouaceur as a credible destination for high-value tech investment.
Morocco’s Larger Data Centre Moment
This project does not exist in isolation. Statista estimates Morocco’s data centre market revenue will reach $746 million in 2025, growing at 5.3 percent annually to hit $917 million by 2029. Demand for compute infrastructure on the continent is accelerating, and Morocco has emerged as one of the more credible landing zones for that investment.
Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra currently host the most data centres in the country, with full internet penetration rates in these urban centres and available energy supply being key draws for operators.
The Naver-NVIDIA-Nexus project is now firmly beyond the announcement phase. With land secured and power supply agreements in place, the main outstanding question is the speed of construction and whether Morocco’s grid and regulatory environment can keep pace with the scale of what is being built. A 500MW facility would rank among the most significant AI infrastructure deployments anywhere on the African continent.
