The U.S. is gaining an upper hand in a high-tech trade war with China over data centers in Africa. Major new deals have been engineered in a public-private partnership between the U.S. administration and American companies in Africa, while U.S. states clamp down on the centers due to their massive reliance on electricity.
The administration's Bureau of African Affairs has worked on 37 commercial transactions that have closed since the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term, representing a total value of $25.67 billion. Data centers are at the heart of today's global economy, fueling the massive demand for AI and hosting everything from video streaming to housing cloud networks.
In Lesotho, with U.S. help, an American company has won a $6.2 billion deal for a data center and hydropower plant, the largest transaction in the country's history. In Gabon, the U.S. Embassy helped win $600 million in business for American companies in 2025, and this year, the embassy assisted in securing a $100 million contract to supply two data centers and a gas-to-power plant.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank Garcia, said, "Under President Trump's leadership, the United States is assisting U.S. companies to find new markets and flourish in Africa." The main strategic competitor in Africa is China, while American goods traded with Africa last year were valued at $83.4 billion, Beijing's trade with Africa reached $348 billion for the same period.
The State Department, through the Bureau of African Affairs, launched the Commercial Diplomacy Strategy in early 2025 to drive this initiative. The U.S. is working worldwide to advance a level playing field for U.S. companies and address disparities in trade practices.
Lesotho's geography and financial situation make it challenging for the U.S. to compete with China, but the $6.2 billion agreement between Convalt Energy and the government of Lesotho is a significant achievement. The project includes a 1,200MW pumped-storage hydropower facility and a 900MW AI data center, increasing Lesotho's electricity generation capacity by approximately 1,600%.
Convalt Energy's President & CEO, Hari Achuthan, said, "American companies can compete successfully by innovating faster, integrating hardware and software, and remaining intensely focused on the needs of the end customer." A new data center, Achuthan believes, is essential for any country's growth, particularly in the face of increasing demand for AI and digital infrastructure.
The Trump administration's emphasis on trade and private-sector investment is closely aligned with Convalt's approach in Africa, which is pursuing a commercially sustainable infrastructure platform built around long-term investment, bilateral trade with a durable, sustainable operating business.
The construction of two data centers is part of the $100 million deal Assistant Secretary Garcia says administration officials have helped American company Cybastion secure. Garcia added, "notably, the U.S. company prevailed over Huawei (a Chinese company) in a direct competition for the project."
Cybastion CEO Dr. Thierry Wandji believes U.S. companies can and are now coming to the fore. Earlier this month, the U.S. embassy in the Ivory Coast even secured a larger deal for Cybastion, a $170 million contract that will bring a data center, government digitalization platform, and a cutting-edge border surveillance system to this West African country.
