Cassava Technologies has unveiled plans for the construction of Africa’s first AI factory—a powerful and super-secure data centre facility powered with NVIDIA AI computing technology.
The plan, announced on Monday, will give African businesses, governments, and researchers access to cutting-edge AI computing capacity and help them develop smarter AI products, streamline operations, and stay competitive in a fast-changing world.
It provides the supercomputers and software needed to train AI while keeping data within Africa’s borders.
The company will deploy NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI software using NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) 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.
The tech company’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 (AIaaS).
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. 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, 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. 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.”
“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 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.”