South Africa's IT Spending to Grow Nearly 20% in 2026

South Africa’s technology bill is climbing faster than the global average. Businesses will spend $28.1 billion on IT in 2026. Gartner says that represents 19.8% growth from last year, compared with the global forecast of 14.2%. Gartner shared the figures with TechCentral after releasing its latest global forecast. They point to a clear trend. Companies are putting more money into infrastructure, especially data centres, to meet growing computing demand.

Data centres lead the market

No category is growing faster than data centre systems. Gartner expects spending to climb from $1.09 billion in 2025 to $2.07 billion in 2026. That represents growth of 90.6%. The global average stands at 62.5%. Companies are expanding computing capacity. They need more servers, storage and networking equipment as they roll out AI tools, move workloads online and process more data. “Building the compute capacity required for AI is the largest infrastructure project ever attempted by humanity,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. Even after this growth, data centre systems account for only 7.4% of South Africa’s total IT spending. That leaves plenty of room for further expansion.

Software remains a major growth area

Software spending will increase 24.3% this year, according to Gartner. That makes it the second-fastest growing category after data centres. Gartner expects IT services to grow 14.4%. Spending on devices will rise 12.7%. Communications services remain the country’s largest technology market. Businesses and consumers will spend $8.9 billion in this category. That represents almost one-third of South Africa’s total IT spending.

Cloud spending tells a different story

Infrastructure investment continues to gather pace. Cloud spending is growing more slowly. Gartner expects Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) spending to grow 26.7%. The global average is 29.3%. The figures suggest local organisations still prioritise servers, storage and data centre infrastructure. They are expanding cloud environments at a steadier pace. The picture across sub-Saharan Africa looks more modest. Research firm T4i forecasts ICT spending will increase from $108 billion in 2026 to $143.1 billion by 2030. That represents annual growth of 7.3%. AI related spending will grow faster than any other technology category. Even so, it starts from a small base. It will still account for only a small share of total ICT spending by the end of the decade. T4i founder Mark Walker says infrastructure constraints, electricity shortages, financing costs, regulation and skills shortages continue to slow technology investment across much of the continent.

Higher spending does not always mean more equipment

Higher IT spending does not automatically mean organisations are buying more technology. Gartner expects memory prices to remain high through 2026. Higher memory costs will push up the price of PCs, smartphones and other hardware. As prices increase, businesses and consumers will keep devices for longer before replacing them. The research firm also expects the market for entry level laptops to shrink further. Manufacturers continue to struggle with rising component costs. Gartner says companies are becoming more selective about where they spend their technology budgets. Many organisations now direct more funding towards servers, storage, networking and the infrastructure that supports AI workloads. They are delaying or reducing spending in other areas. South Africa’s latest figures point to a market that continues to invest despite economic pressure. Most of the growth is flowing into digital infrastructure. It is not spreading evenly across the technology sector.