Tech Giants’ Retreat From Africa Continues As Microsoft Guts Kenyan Engineering Hub

Microsoft has told staff at its Africa Development Centre in Nairobi that the engineering hub will close, ending a seven-year, USD 100 M bet on building global products from Africa and putting nearly 400 jobs at risk.

The decision, communicated to employees on Monday, marks the second retreat from a dedicated engineering presence on the continent after Microsoft shut its Lagos ADC in 2024. Coming just months after a USD 1 B data centre project with Abu Dhabi’s G42 stalled over payment guarantees, the closure signals a broader recalibration of how US tech giants engage with Africa.

The pattern extends beyond Microsoft. X, formerly Twitter, briefly opened an office in Accra, Ghana, in November 2022, then laid off nearly all of its roughly 20 employees just four days later. Former staff said they were “ghosted” without severance pay for more than seven months, and the company reached a settlement only after about a year of negotiations. Kenya has since given X three months to open a physical office in Nairobi, a demand that remains unmet.

Oracle has taken a different path. The company has not closed its Nairobi office but has cut roughly 21,000 jobs globally, about 13% of its workforce, as it redirects capital toward AI and cloud infrastructure. Oracle’s Nairobi operation, which serves as a hub for East African cloud and AI sales, has not been immune.

The company has not disclosed how many Kenyan staff were affected, but termination emails sent in September 2026 gave employees same-day notice, with severance capped at 26 weeks of base salary. Oracle has simultaneously been advertising roles in Kenya for data centre technicians and AI infrastructure sales, a signal that the cuts are a reallocation rather than a full retreat.

Ride-hailing giant Uber has also pulled back sharply from Africa. The ride-hailing giant shut down operations in Nigeria and Uganda in September, capping a year in which it exited four African markets in roughly twelve months, having earlier withdrawn from Tanzania in January 2026 and Côte d’Ivoire in September 2025. Meanwhile, Meta’s termination of a content moderation contract triggered 1,108 job cuts at Sama’s Nairobi hub in April.

The combined effect is a continent increasingly treated as a market for consumption rather than a site for production. The depth of Western involvement raises questions about whose priorities shape Africa’s digital future.

***

Microsoft’s cash spending on property and equipment, mostly data centres, rose from USD 23.9 B in FY2022 to USD 115.9 B in FY2026. Its workforce, meanwhile, fell by 5,000 to 223,000. Capital is flowing into compute infrastructure, not engineering headcount. The Nairobi ADC, whose teams built global products rather than Africa-specific ones, was exposed. Its work could be done from Redmond or Hyderabad. Median entry-level pay for a Microsoft engineer in Kenya stood at roughly USD 52 K a year, against USD 30 K in Bengaluru.

Kenya’s ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo met a Microsoft delegation on Monday and said he “stressed the importance of retaining local talent, protecting jobs at Microsoft’s Nairobi engineering centre and sustaining investor confidence.” The government and Microsoft agreed to develop a joint action plan covering AI adoption, digital government services and cybersecurity.

For Kenya, the closure undercuts a decade-long effort to position itself as a regional technology hub. It follows the stalled Olkaria data centre, which was to be anchored by a geothermal-powered facility and mentored by ADC engineers. Talks broke down in May over Kenya’s reluctance to commit to fixed annual capacity payments.

Africa accounts for 18% of the world’s population but holds less than 1% of global data centre capacity. The continent’s four largest tech economies have each drafted AI strategies acknowledging dependence on US infrastructure as a security concern.

The Nairobi ADC was launched in May 2019 with a pledge of 500 engineers by 2023. By December 2022 it reported more than 500 engineers in Nairobi. Employees were asked to meet with managers by Friday to discuss exit options, including severance terms. Microsoft has not disclosed the timeline for the wind-down or whether Microsoft Research Africa and the Microsoft Garage, both housed at the ADC’s Dunhill Towers office, are included.