Oracle has been in Morocco for over a year. Its Casablanca R&D facility opened in June 2025. Its first public cloud region went live in February. And now, with a ceremony attended by Morocco’s head of government, its investment minister, and the US Ambassador, the company has opened a second research and development centre — this one in Agadir, a coastal city well outside the Casablanca–Rabat corridor where most Moroccan tech investment clusters.
The Agadir opening is significant not just because of its size; Oracle plans to grow its Moroccan workforce to nearly 1,000 professionals — but because of where it is. Forty per cent of Oracle’s new Moroccan roles are planned outside Casablanca and the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region. That is a deliberate choice, and it signals something about how Morocco is trying to build a tech ecosystem that does not just replicate the capital-city concentration that has limited digital economies elsewhere on the continent.
Oracle’s $140 million Morocco commitment by 2030, two cloud regions, and two R&D centres make Morocco one of the most active sites of American enterprise technology investment in Africa right now. And Morocco is making its move to become the infrastructure gateway between Africa and the rest of the world.
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Major Highlights
- Oracle inaugurated its second Moroccan R&D centre in Agadir on June 30, following its Casablanca facility opened in June 2025 — expanding beyond Morocco’s traditional tech hub
- The Agadir launch was attended by Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch, Digital Transition Minister Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, Investment Minister Karim Zidane, and US Ambassador Duke Buchan III
- Oracle plans to grow its Moroccan workforce to nearly 1,000 professionals working on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), AI applications, and data platforms
- 40% of new Oracle roles will be located outside Casablanca and the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region — an intentional strategy to develop tech capacity across Morocco’s 12 regions, not just its capital
- Oracle’s total Morocco investment commitment is $140 million by 2030, covering two R&D centres and two public cloud regions (Casablanca, operational since February 2026; Settat, planned)
- The Casablanca R&D centre, which opened first, spans seven floors and works on OCI, AI, and machine learning — 94% of eligible interns were offered full-time roles in its first year
- Morocco’s digital sector now employs more than 148,500 people, predominantly young professionals — Oracle’s expansion feeds directly into that pipeline
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KINI BIG DEAL
Morocco is quietly building one of the most credible cases on the African continent for what serious tech ecosystem development looks like. Two Oracle cloud regions, a $140 million investment commitment, a workforce of nearly 1,000 professionals — and critically, a deliberate policy to spread that investment beyond the capital. That is not an accident. That is the Ministry of Digital Transition executing a plan.
The detail about Oracle’s Casablanca R&D centre converting 94% of eligible interns to full-time roles deserves a moment. That number tells you the skills are there. It tells you the pipeline works. It tells you that what African countries often frame as a talent shortage is, in many cases, an access-and-investment shortage. When a global company builds the infrastructure and shows up consistently, the talent shows up too.
The lesson for Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya is not to copy Morocco’s approach wholesale — different countries, different contexts. The lesson is the consistency. Oracle did not open one facility and declare victory. It opened a cloud region, then a second R&D hub, spread it geographically, committed for five more years. That is the kind of patient, layered engagement that turns a tech announcement into an ecosystem.
Read More: https://techafricanews.com/2026/07/01/oracle-opens-regional-rd-hub-in-morocco-to-boost-innovation/
