How would it feel like you see a whole factory working on AI technology? Strange yet exciting! But yes, this is happening. Zimbabwe’s Richest Man Strive Masiyiwa is building Africa’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) factory in South Africa. Cassava Technologies, company owned by him is collaborating with Nvidia for this project.
As per an official statement released on Cassava’s website, the company will integrate Nvidia’s cutting-edge computing and AI software into its data centres in South Africa by June 2025. The company also has an expansion plan for Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria.
Moreover, the released statement reads, “This will give African businesses, governments and researchers access to cutting-edge AI computing capacity. It will help them in developing smarter AI products, streamline operations and software which is needed to train AI while keeping data within Africa’s borders.”
Mogul Masiyiwa explained that developing AI infrastructure is crucial for Africa to fully harness the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, positioning the continent for technological and economic transformation.
He further added to his statement that their AI factory provides the infrastructure for this recent innovation to scale, empower African businesses, start-ups 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.
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Considering this AI factory establishment in South Africa, VP EMEA at NVIDIA – Jaap Zuiderveld said that AI is helping innovators to solve the greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services and many other industries creating various opportunities in Africa.
However, as a cloud partner to NVIDIA, Cassava is providing essential infrastructure and software to help pioneering companies and organisations to accelerate AI development to foster innovation across the continent.
Pioneering this new construction in Africa, Cassava Technologies is all set to become the first company to introduce the accelerated computing to Africa as an Nvidia cloud partner.
Meanwhile, the global tech firms are also eyeing over digital future of Africa. Last year, Microsoft Corp. and G42, the leading AI companies of UAE, announced plans to invest $1 billion in a data centre powered by geothermal in Kenya.