What you need to know about Africa’s first AI factory

Africa just scored a major tech coup.

On March 24, Zimbabwean billionaire Mr Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava Technologies announced a partnership with Nvidia to build Africa’s first artificial intelligence (AI) factory.

This is not just another data centre — it is a specialised powerhouse designed specifically for AI computing. Cassava plans to use Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI technology in South Africa by June 2025, with expansion planned across Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria.

It has not given a timeline.

The facility is powered by Nvidia supercomputers that use GPUs, or graphics processing units.

It will deliver what Cassava calls “AI as a service” across the continent, leveraging an extensive fibre-optic network and energy-efficient data centres.

What exactly is an

AI factory?

Think of an AI factory as the industrial revolution for artificial intelligence. Coined by Nvidia’s visionary CEO, Jensen Huang, an AI factory is a specialised environment equipped with the infrastructure needed to manage a complete AI life cycle.

It is where raw data enters and trained AI emerges.

These facilities streamline the development of AI systems by bringing together data pipelines, algorithm development and model experimentation into one optimised ecosystem, Dr Chinasa Okolo, a technology innovation fellow at United States think tank Brookings, told Rest of World.

Africa’s computing crisis

A severe lack of computing power has strangled Africa’s AI potential.

The numbers are stark: The continent accounts for a mere 0,1 percent of the world’s computing capacity, Mr Karim Beguir, CEO of Africa’s biggest AI company InstaDeep, had earlier told Rest of World.

Only 5 percent of Africa’s AI talent has access to the computational resources needed for complex tasks, according to the UNDP.

Even worse, Africa remains dramatically under-represented in global AI training data sets.

This computing drought has effectively sidelined an entire continent from meaningful participation in the AI revolution — until now.

Cassava’s partnership with Nvidia aims to solve this exact problem.

Why this matters for Africa

“This partnership is a watershed moment for our continent’s tech ecosystem,” Engineer Silas Adekunle, whose AI firm Awarri is helping Nigeria build its large language model, told Rest of World. “Companies like ours could leverage such technology to scale our solutions in critical areas.”

The impact could be transformative on multiple fronts.

First, it localises AI development within Africa, reducing dependence on foreign cloud platforms.

For startups like Awarri, it means training and running AI models on home soil at competitive costs.

The benefits extend beyond business to the academia, where professors, including Durban University of Technology’s Colin Thakur, can finally access previously unaffordable Nvidia technology, altering research and experimentation across the continent.

“The cost of these Nvidia chips is out of the range of most academics,” Prof Thakur told Rest of World.

“This will democratise research and experimentation.”

The man behind the move

Mr Masiyiwa is a Zimbabwean telecommunications tycoon whose four-decade career spans continents.

From humble beginnings, Mr Masiyiwa built Econet Wireless, a telecom giant with millions of users across Africa, and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, the continent’s largest independent fibre network spanning more than 100 000 kilometres across 14 countries.

Cassava Technologies, representing his boldest vision yet, has ventures in mobile payments, renewable energy and ride hailing, while Higherlife Foundation focuses on education and healthcare initiatives.

Based in the United Kingdom, Mr Masiyiwa continues to invest across Africa, Europe, India, Latin America and the Middle East.

His move into AI infrastructure could be his most significant legacy — positioning Africa to finally claim its place in the global technology landscape.

The road ahead

Even as the Nvidia-Cassava partnership marks a pivotal moment, it is just the beginning of Africa’s AI journey.

While the infrastructure breakthrough must be matched with talent development, research investment and precise policy frameworks, Africa has, for the first time, the foundation to build upon, Dr Okolo said.

As Cassava’s data centres spread across the continent, they signify Africa’s effort to write its own chapter in the AI revolution.

“There is still much work needed for African countries and companies to become significant stakeholders in the global AI race,” Dr Okolo said — Wires