Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwe’s richest man and founder of Cassava Technologies, has revealed plans to build five artificial intelligence facilities across Africa. The project, valued at a total of $720 million, will enhance Africa’s position amid the growth of AI infrastructure and reduce its dependence on external resources.
According to the billionaire, the plan is backed by Cassava Technologies’ “Sovereign AI Cloud” strategy. This initiative seeks to create a space for African countries to host their systems locally. Through his company, where he serves as the Chairman, Masiyiwa will look to scale AI infrastructure on the continent.
“Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, start-ups, and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure. Now they don’t have to look beyond Africa to get it,” he said.
The first AI factory is already under development in South Africa and will run on 3,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). In the project, Nvidia will integrate its AI software by embedding NVIDIA Cloud Partner reference architectures and deploy hundreds of GPUs, which power its high-performance supercomputers.
“Building digital infrastructure for the AI economy is a priority if Africa is to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution,” added Masiyiwa.
Aside from South Africa, the other four African countries expected to house the AI facility are Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt. With 3,000 Nvidia GPUs being installed in the South African facility, an additional 9,000 will be installed across the other four countries.
In addition, the South African infrastructure is expected to be completed by year’s end, while it will take three to four years for other countries.
Also Read: Cassava Technologies secures $310 million in debt and equity funding to boost digital inclusion.
Masiyiwa has enlarged Cassava Technologies’ footprints from telecoms into fintech, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Worth about $1.3 billion, he is known for building Econet Wireless into one of Africa’s largest telecom groups.
Once it completes the artificial intelligence projects across the five countries, Cassava Technologies plans to link factories to its wider digital network, which includes Africa Data Centres, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and Liquid C2. These companies are already in charge of data storage, internet connectivity and cybersecurity services across Africa.
Cassava Technologies is propelling Africa to the centre of artificial intelligence
While artificial intelligence is still evolving in Africa, the facilities are a vital fuel in bridging a major gap in Africa’s digital economy. For an increased adoption of high tech, Africa needs the required cloud-based infrastructure, such as data centres and AI testing hubs.
Reports revealed that only 5% of African AI talent currently has access to the high-performance computing power needed to train advanced artificial intelligence models. By building local infrastructure, African researchers can leverage their knowledge to develop homegrown tools in sectors like finance, education, health and agriculture.
With Cassava Technologies’ infrastructure in place, Africa can start to retain their data and talents. This opens the ground to thrive from the home front, build scalable initiatives and place Africa at the edge of reinforcing its digital economy.
Earlier this year, Cassava Technologies launched a dedicated artificial intelligence business unit. In that project, it signed partnerships with global tech giants including Microsoft, AWS, Google and Anthropic to support African talents and developers.
Experts noted that such a push is needed for Africa to be part of the fast-growing global AI industry while keeping sensitive data on the continent. Also, it could be a cost of operation for local startups and governments, who often pay high fees to store and process data overseas.
Not only in artificial intelligence facilities, Africa is also making waves in data centre infrastructure.
Aside from Teraco’s JB4’s 50MW data centre in South Africa, the largest, Airtel Africa has commenced a 44MW facility in Tatu City, Kenya, posing as East Africa’s largest. The data centre is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2027.
The telecom company is also building a 38MW data centre in Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, Nigeria, labelled as West Africa’s largest upon completion.
