EXCITEMENT is palpable in Kigali, Rwanda, as the Global AI Summit on Africa gets into full swing, spotlighting transformative opportunities for economic growth and technological innovation across the continent. Among the headline developments energising the summit is the announcement from Cassava Technologies of Africa’s first AI factory, in collaboration with Nvidia—a move set to revolutionise the continent’s digital future.
CNN reports that Cassava Technologies, the pan-African tech firm founded by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, has announced a landmark partnership with Nvidia to launch Africa’s first artificial intelligence factory. The facility, powered by Nvidia’s world-class GPU-based supercomputers, is set to roll out from Cassava’s South African data centres starting in June, with expansion into Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria to follow.
Closing the GPU gap
Africa has long trailed behind in the global AI race, largely due to lack of access to advanced computing power. A recent study by Zindi—a platform that connects over 80,000 AI builders across 52 African countries—found that only 5 percent of African AI practitioners have the necessary compute power to train models or run advanced systems.
That’s about to change.
Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), the gold standard in AI computing, are set to become accessible on the continent for the first time at scale. These high-performance chips, already used by major global players like OpenAI, Tesla, and Meta, will now support African startups, researchers, and institutions from within Africa itself.
‘This is the infrastructure we’ve been waiting for,’ said Alex Tsado, founder of Alliance4AI, a nonprofit supporting tech adoption in Africa. Speaking to CNN, he noted: ‘Without GPU access, building AI systems takes far longer here than it would in places like the US or Europe. This move helps level the playing field.’
Local access, global impact
Masiyiwa described the AI factory as a transformational step for Africa’s tech ecosystem. ‘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 in a statement.
The initiative is expected to drive a wider ripple effect. With greater access to powerful computing, there’s fresh incentive to gather data, train talent, and accelerate innovation across sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and financial services.
Celina Lee, CEO of Zindi, told CNN that local infrastructure could be a game-changer: ‘By establishing Africa-based AI resources, our developers gain faster, cheaper access to AI tools. This will make it easier to create models that are more efficient and more locally relevant.’
Cost barriers and cloud limitations
One of the biggest obstacles to AI development in Africa has been cost. Some of Nvidia’s top GPUs cost up to $40,000. According to AI4D, a Kenyan developer would need to spend the equivalent of 75 percent of the country’s GDP per capita to afford one—a figure that makes the same hardware 31 times more expensive in relative terms than in Germany.
As a result, many African developers have relied on foreign cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. But these too are expensive and introduce issues of latency and regulatory risk when data is hosted outside of the continent.
With local data centres now being equipped with world-class GPU infrastructure, developers are no longer tethered to expensive, remote systems.
Toward more inclusive AI
Another key advantage of the AI factory model is the potential to increase Africa’s representation in global datasets. African languages, dialects, and facial data are significantly underrepresented in current AI training materials—leading to flawed results, such as facial recognition models that struggle to identify darker skin tones.
‘With this infrastructure in place, African developers can train models on local datasets that reflect their communities, economies, and environments,’ Lee told CNN. ‘This is how we make AI that works for us—not just in Africa, but in the world.’
Remaining hurdles
Despite the promise, challenges remain. Unreliable electricity supply continues to dog many African countries, raising questions about how the AI factories will ensure consistent power for their high-energy hardware.
Additionally, the continent’s users often access AI tools via lower-end smartphones, which may not support advanced applications without additional infrastructure upgrades.
Still, observers say the move signals a pivotal shift.
‘This is a very welcome boost,’ Tsado said. ‘Africa’s big tech is finally investing in our own AI capacity. Strive Masiyiwa’s announcement is the first big public commitment, and it can trigger others to follow.’
A catalyst for the future
While Cassava Technologies has yet to share specific timelines beyond its June South Africa rollout, the company’s statement affirms its intent to democratise AI across the continent. If successful, the AI factory model could reshape Africa’s place in the global tech conversation—not as a passive consumer of innovation, but as an active and influential creator.
The summit in Kigali may have opened with bold ideas—but thanks to Masiyiwa and Nvidia, one of those ideas is already becoming reality.
