Global technology firm, Cassava Technologies, will partner American multinational corporation and technology company, Nvidia Corporation, to build Africa’s first artificial intelligence (AI) factory.
It will be powered by Nvidia’s AI computing.
Cassava Technologies is the digital services and digital infrastructure arm of Econet Global Limited, the South African headquartered technology firm controlled by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa.
Econet Global has the majority shareholding in Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.
“Cassava Technologies announced today that it plans to build Africa’s first AI factory — a powerful and super-secure data centre facility powered with Nvidia AI computing technology,” Cassava said in a statement yesterday.
“This will give African businesses, governments and researchers access to cutting-edge AI computing capacity — helping them develop smarter AI products, streamline operations and stay competitive in a fast-changing world.”
Cassava said that Nvidia provided the supercomputers and software needed to train AI.
“Cassava plans to deploy Nvidia accelerated computing and AI software using Nvidia Cloud Partner reference architectures, at its data centres in South Africa by June 2025, with expansion planned at its other data centre facilities in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria,” Cassava said.
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“Cassava’s AI factory will leverage the company’s pan-African high-speed, ultra-low-latency, fibre-optic network with sustainable data centres to deliver AI as a service. Cassava’s world-class data centres are designed to be energy efficient, using less electricity to power AI computing workloads.”
Nvidia GPU-based supercomputers will power the AI factory, enabling faster AI model training, fine-tuning, and advanced inference capabilities.
According to Cassava, the Cassava AI factory will ensure businesses and researchers have access to the AI computing power required to scale, boost productivity and power innovation.
The firm explained that 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, and deploy AI in a secure environment compliant with global and local regulations.
“Building digital infrastructure for the AI economy is a priority if Africa is to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution,” Masiyiwa said.
“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 gave the firm the advanced computing capabilities needed to drive Africa’s AI innovation while strengthening the continent’s digital independence.
Nvidia Europe, the Middle East and Africa vice-president Jaap Zuiderveld said AI was helping innovators solve the planet’s greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services and many other industries.
“As a Nvidia cloud partner, Cassava is providing essential infrastructure and software to help pioneering companies and organisations accelerate AI development to foster innovation across the continent,” he said.
