Keypoints:
- $720m pledged for five AI factories
- First site rising in South Africa
- Plan to cut reliance on foreign cloud
ZIMBABWEAN billionaire Strive Masiyiwa has announced a bold $720 million investment to build five artificial intelligence factories across Africa, aiming to give the continent the computing power to develop its own advanced AI systems and reduce dependence on overseas cloud services.
First plant breaks ground in South Africa
Masiyiwa, founder of Cassava Technologies and worth an estimated $1.3bn, said the first facility is already under construction in South Africa and will be powered by 3,000 high-performance Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). These processors will enable African researchers, start-ups and governments to train sophisticated AI models without relying on foreign infrastructure.
‘Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, start-ups and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure. Now they don’t have to look beyond Africa to get it,’ Masiyiwa said in a statement released by Cassava.
Five-nation rollout to 2026
The five facilities are planned for South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco, with all expected to be operational by late 2026. The initiative forms part of Cassava’s ‘Sovereign AI Cloud’ strategy, designed to keep sensitive data within African borders and give major markets their own AI backbone.
Company executives said the move will help close a serious gap in Africa’s digital economy. Currently, only about 5 per cent of African AI talent has access to the high-performance computing required to train advanced AI models. By hosting infrastructure locally, the factories could support new tools in finance, education, health and agriculture.
Network of partners and services
Cassava intends to integrate the AI plants with its broader digital network, including Africa Data Centres, Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Liquid C2, which provide data storage, internet connectivity and cybersecurity services across the continent. Earlier this year, the firm launched a dedicated AI business unit and signed partnerships with global tech giants such as Microsoft, AWS, Google and Anthropic to strengthen African developers’ capabilities.
Boosting Africa’s AI ambitions
Analysts believe the plan could help Africa compete in the fast-growing global AI sector while lowering costs for local start-ups and governments, who often pay steep fees to store and process data overseas.
Masiyiwa, who built Econet Wireless into one of Africa’s largest telecom groups before expanding into cloud computing, fintech and cybersecurity, said the factories are a natural next step for Cassava Technologies.
