#62 - Amine Kandil - N+ONE - Building Data Centers in Africa

Get Next Wave’s Startup List 2026: https://next-wave.kit.com/04ffde046bTaptap Send. Transfer money to Morocco in just a few clicks. Use the code NEXTWAVE to receive up to $25 in rewards.Next Wave is the podcast that meets the people building the Morocco of tomorrow.If you enjoyed this episode, don’t hesitate to subscribe and like the video!—I sat down with Amine Kandil to talk about data centers in Africa. Data centers are the highways of the internet. They enable everything you consume online, from content to software. In the age of AI, they became strategic infrastructure, with billions in investment across the world in the past 3 years. In 2008, Amine Kandil came back to Morocco from the US to build a software company. He asked a friend about data centers to host his software in Morocco, and understood that there weren’t any.He decided to build data centers instead of software, and that’s how N+ONE was born. In this conversation, Amine explained why data centers matter, the impact of energy costs, why data sovereignty is key, and more. We talked about the history of this “digital infrastructure”, from data centers to the cloud, and the current impact of the AI gold rush.It was a fascinating discussion where we deep dive into this topic: history, business model, partnerships with hyperscalers, sovereignty, the state of the African market, and advice for building companies in emerging markets. I loved having this conversation and look forward to hearing your thoughts! Thank you Amine for taking the time.➜ Instagram de Next Wave : https://www.instagram.com/nextwave.ma_/ If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to leave us a comment.▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ PLATEFORMES ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/71TB2zh... Apple Podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ TIMELINE ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 00:00:00 : Introduction 00:01:06 : What is a data center?00:05:00 : Why Amine decided to build data centers00:11:08 : Data center components00:19:42 : Building the business00:33:13 : Early challenges00:34:00 : Solo founder journey00:36:03 : Business growth00:40:48 : Inside the servers00:42:27 : Server evolution & competition00:47:00 : Data sovereignty00:53:45 : Hyperscaler deal01:02:57 : AI data centers01:09:22 : Africa’s data center market01:14:01 : N+ONE’s global expansion01:16:57 : $90m investment in N+ONE01:18:16 : The future of AI01:19:39 : Advice to entrepreneurs01:22:10 : Life beyond work01:22:37 : A book that inspired you