Africa is about to get its first dedicated AI factory — a development that could transform the resource-abundant yet untapped continent.
Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava Technologies has announced a partnership with Nvidia to build Africa’s first AI factory in South Africa.
Slated to begin operations by June 2025, this initiative aims to bridge the significant AI infrastructure gap on the continent, offering African businesses, startups, and researchers unprecedented access to high-performance computing power. This collaboration could not only accelerate AI adoption across Africa’s key sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and finance, but it also promises to reshape the continent’s tech landscape by localizing AI capabilities and fostering a new era of innovation.
Key Takeaways
- Cassava Technologies and Nvidia are launching Africa’s first AI factory in South Africa.
- The facility will address Africa’s critical computing shortage (just 0.1% of global capacity), providing essential AI infrastructure.
- Nvidia’s supercomputers will enable faster AI model development across key sectors like healthcare and agriculture.
- The project aims to democratize AI access, boosting innovation and job creation in South Africa’s tech industry.
Why it matters
This AI factory represents a monumental shift for Africa, which has been largely excluded from the AI revolution due to a severe computing deficit. With only 5% of African AI talent having access to adequate computational resources, this factory could finally unlock the continent’s innovation potential in sectors from healthcare to agriculture. The facility will be capable of handling the full AI lifecycle from data to deployment.
What exactly is an AI Factory?
An AI factory is a cutting-edge facility designed to streamline the development, training, and deployment of artificial intelligence. Much like a traditional manufacturing plant processes raw materials into finished products, an AI factory converts vast amounts of data into actionable insights using powerful computing infrastructure. These specialized centers, like the one by Cassava Technologies in South Africa, are equipped with advanced technologies, such as Nvidia’s GPU supercomputers, to accelerate AI innovation. This unique setup supports faster development and scaling of AI solutions while ensuring that critical data stays within regional borders, fostering local solutions for Africa’s most pressing challenges.
Building Africa’s AI foundation
The joint venture between Cassava Technologies and Nvidia marks a pivotal moment in Africa’s tech history. Nvidia, a global leader in AI computing, and Cassava, a major African technology firm, will combine their expertise to create an AI powerhouse. Powered by Nvidia’s supercomputers equipped with graphics processing units (GPUs), the facility will bring AI infrastructure to Africa on an unprecedented scale.
At the Global AI Summit (April 3-4, 2025) in Rwanda, Masiyiwa announced the first 3,000 GPUs would arrive in May, with 10,000 more to follow. This will provide vital computational resources for developing AI models, enabling local enterprises to tap into the growing global AI ecosystem.
Africa’s AI potential has long been stymied by a lack of computing power, with the continent contributing a mere 0.1% to the world’s computing capacity. This scarcity of resources has severely hindered innovation, with only 5% of Africa’s AI talent having access to the tools necessary for complex AI tasks, according to analysis from Zindi, a community of 80,000 AI builders across 52 African countries.
The AI factory’s high-performance GPUs will rectify this imbalance, enabling AI practitioners across the continent to develop and scale their models locally, without the need to rely on expensive foreign cloud infrastructure. Currently, there are no big GPU clusters in Africa and “If you don’t have access to GPUs, it takes you many more hours, if not days, to build the same solutions (or AI systems) than it would take someone else who is in a place where they do have access (like the US or Europe) … (It) triggers the ecosystem to accelerate all the progress that they’ve already been making” Alex Tsado, founder of Alliance4AI, told CNN.
Empowering African innovators
This initiative offers African startups, businesses, and academic institutions a platform to build locally relevant AI solutions.
With access to Nvidia’s GPU-powered supercomputers, innovators can create scalable solutions to address Africa’s unique challenges. For instance, Silas Adekunle, CEO of Awarri, an AI firm in Nigeria, called the partnership a “watershed moment” for Africa’s tech ecosystem. Universities, such as Durban University of Technology, will also benefit from democratized access to Nvidia technology, bolstering research capabilities across the continent.
South Africa’s selection as the host country for this pioneering AI factory highlights its growing significance in Africa’s tech ecosystem. The country is emerging as a regional hub for innovation with a robust infrastructure and a developing community of skilled tech professionals. By hosting this facility, South Africa is positioning itself at the forefront of the global AI revolution, attracting future investments and opportunities in AI and tech entrepreneurship.
Africa’s first AI factory
Set to launch by June 2025, Cassava’s AI factory will initially deploy Nvidia’s accelerated computing platforms at its South African facilities, with plans to expand data centers across Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria. By tapping into Cassava’s pan-African, high-speed, ultra-low-latency fiber-optic network, the project will offer AI as a Service (AIaaS), enabling businesses and researchers across the continent to build, train, and scale AI models efficiently. With sustainable, energy-efficient data centers, the facility will provide a cost-effective and eco-friendly solution to the continent’s AI needs.
“Building digital infrastructure for the AI economy is a priority if Africa is to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution. Our AI Factory provides the infrastructure for this innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, startups and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure to turn their bold ideas into real-world breakthroughs — and now, they don’t have to look beyond Africa to get it,” said Strive Masiyiwa, Founder & Chairman of Cassava.
“Collaborating with NVIDIA gives us the advanced computing capabilities needed to drive Africa’s AI innovation while strengthening the continent’s digital independence,” he added.
The factory’s role in the AI ecosystem extends beyond just infrastructure. It’s designed to be a critical platform for AI model training, giving African developers the tools they need to create smarter products and services for the local market.
“AI is helping innovators solve our greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services and many other industries creating opportunity in Africa,” said Jaap Zuiderveld, VP of EMEA at NVIDIA. “As an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, Cassava is providing essential infrastructure and software to help pioneering companies and organizations accelerate AI development to foster innovation across the continent.”
What’s next?
The AI factory’s launch in South Africa will be followed by rapid expansion across other key African markets, including Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria. This growth will create jobs, stimulate local economies, and facilitate the growth of AI-driven businesses.
As Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame highlighted at the AI Summit, “Africa cannot afford to be left behind again.” With this factory, the continent finally has the infrastructure to compete and craft AI solutions that address Africa’s unique challenges rather than importing foreign models.
