Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava Technologies to build first AI factory in Africa powered by NVIDIA

Digital services and infrastructure provider, Cassava Technologies has revealed plans to build Africa’s first AI factory. The company revealed this in a press statement seen by Technext. According to the statement, the facility, which will be a powerful and super-secure data centre facility, will be powered with NVIDIA AI computing technology. 

Set to be completed by June 2025, the company says the facility will give African businesses, governments and researchers access to cutting-edge AI computing capacity. This will help them develop smarter artificial intelligence products, streamline their operations and stay competitive in a fast-changing world.

The facility will also provide the supercomputers and software needed to train AI while keeping data within Africa’s borders.

See also: Cassava Technologies secures $310 million in debt and equity funding to boost digital inclusion

Speaking about the development, Founder and Chairman of Cassava Technologies, Strive Masiyiwa, said building the 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. 

Cassava to deploy NVIDIA tech

Cassava Technologies says its AI Factory marks the next step in its long-standing leadership in providing world-class digital solutions, reinforcing its broader commitment to responsible AI adoption, innovation and productivity growth in Africa. 

To power this next step, the company says it plans to deploy NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI software. This will be done with the NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) reference architectures, to be deployed at its data centres in South Africa by June 2025. 

Beyond South Africa, the company plans to expand to its other data centre facilities across Africa including Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria. 

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 (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. 

Speaking about the proposed deployment, Vice President of EMEA at NVIDIA, Jaap Zuiderveld, noted that AI is helping innovators solve the greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services and many other industries creating opportunity in Africa and the company is proud to work with Cassava in this regard.

“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.

Chairman of Cassava Technologies, Strive Masiyiwa, further pointed out that the Cassava AI Factory will ensure businesses and researchers have access to the AI computing power required to scale, boost productivity and power innovation.

He noted 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. 

“Collaborating with NVIDIA gives us the advanced computing capabilities needed to drive Africa’s AI innovation while strengthening the continent’s digital independence,” he said.