Construction on a major East African infrastructure project has stalled after Microsoft announced it could not possibly proceed with its new Kenyan data center unless the developing nation agreed to guarantee the tech giant's profit margins.
NAIROBI — Representatives for the world's most valuable company confirmed Tuesday that a planned Nairobi facility has been placed on indefinite hold due to the Kenyan government's troubling reluctance to funnel public funds directly into Microsoft's corporate treasury.
The massive server farm, initially touted as a transformative investment in East Africa's digital infrastructure, reportedly hit a snag last month when Microsoft executives realized they might actually have to pay for it. According to people familiar with the negotiations, the Seattle-based corporation requested a binding series of sovereign payouts to ensure the regional expansion wouldn't accidentally cost the $3 trillion entity any of its own money.
We are deeply committed to empowering the African continent, provided the African continent is willing to assume all financial risk for our cloud computing expansion.
Darst explained that while Microsoft currently holds more liquid assets than the gross domestic product of several dozen nations combined, it is simply bad business to spend their own capital when a nation with a developing economy could be pressured into footing the bill instead.
The Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy has reportedly offered a standard package of municipal tax breaks and subsidized utility rates, which Microsoft immediately rejected as "insufficiently liquid."
The company stressed it remains deeply invested in the region's technological future, noting it is fully prepared to resume construction the moment Kenyan taxpayers agree to issue sovereign debt specifically earmarked for the Microsoft Azure server cooling budget.