Cassava Technologies has announced plans to construct Africa’s first AI factory, a state-of-the-art data center facility equipped with NVIDIA’s advanced AI computing technology.
The initiative aims to provide African businesses, governments, and researchers with cutting-edge AI infrastructure, enabling them to develop smarter AI solutions, optimize operations, and enhance global competitiveness—all while keeping data securely within the continent.
According to a statement by the company on Monday, Cassava will deploy Nvidia’s advanced computing and AI software at its data centers in South Africa by June 2025, and then at its other facilities in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria.
Key features of the AI factory
Cassava Technologies said the AI factory will leverage the company’s pan-African high-speed, ultra-low-latency, fiber-optic network with sustainable data centres to deliver AI as a Service (AIaaS).
- It added that NVIDIA GPU-based supercomputers will power the AI factory, enabling faster AI model training, fine-tuning, and advanced inference capabilities.
- Cassava aims to be the first to introduce these accelerated computing platforms to Africa as an NCP, playing a crucial role in the continent’s AI ecosystem.
- The Cassava AI Factory will ensure businesses and researchers have access to the AI computing power required to scale, boost productivity, and power innovation.
“By using this secure, high-performance AI Factory, African businesses, and governments can develop local solutions to local challenges, enabling Africans to build, train, scale,e and deploy AI in a secure environment compliant with global and local regulations,” the company stated.
AI economy in Africa
Speaking on the project, Founder & Chairman of Cassava, Strive Masiyiwa, said 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,” he said.
“Collaborating with NVIDIA gives us the advanced computing capabilities needed to drive Africa’s AI innovation while strengthening the continent’s digital independence,” Masiyiwa added.
VP EMEA at NVIDIA, Jaap Zuiderveld, emphasized the importance of AI, noting that AI is helping innovators solve our greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services, and many other industries creating opportunity in Africa.
“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,” he said.
What you should know
While Cassava aims to be the first to introduce accelerated computing to Africa as an Nvidia cloud partner, several firms including Microsoft Corp. and G42, the United Arab Emirates’ top AI firm, expressed an interest last year in building a geothermal-powered data center in Kenya for $1 billion as part of a multi-year plan to boost cloud-computing capacity in East Africa.
G42 will lead the initial investment and handle the facility’s construction in Olkaria, which has abundant geothermal resources, a key benefit in a continent plagued by power outages, and a potential boon for Microsoft’s efforts to meet its climate goals.
