Nvidia and Cassava Deal Means AI is Ripe for South Africa and Africa.

Nvidia and Cassava Technologies are building Africa’s first AI factory in South Africa, with an initial cluster of 3,000 Nvidia GPUs slated to come online by June 2025 and an expansion toward 12,000 GPUs across Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt over four years. The project targets Africa’s AI compute gap and strengthens digital sovereignty by keeping data and workloads on the continent.

A quantum leap for African AI

The partnership pairs Nvidia’s leadership in accelerated computing with Cassava Technologies’ continent-wide digital infrastructure. Cassava’s network spans carrier-grade fiber, data centers and energy projects, giving the rollout both scale and practical footing. “The partnership with Nvidia brings the computational strength required to foster homegrown AI innovation and digital self-reliance on the continent,” said Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Chairman of Cassava Technologies.

Cassava is already a central player in African connectivity and cloud services, positioning it to turn high-level ambition into day-to-day access for developers, startups and enterprises. The company’s track record in building core digital infrastructure is charted through its ecosystem of businesses and initiatives, including work spotlighted in South Africa’s Top Innovators Win Africa Deep Tech Challenge.

Inside the AI factory rollout

The South Africa build is the anchor. It launches with 3,000 Nvidia GPUs, then scales across multiple regions with a further 9,000 GPUs planned over four years. The platform is designed to deliver AI as a service to customers who need access to training and inference without owning hardware.

“Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for this innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, startups and researchers,” Masiyiwa said. Jaap Zuiderveld, Nvidia’s Vice President for EMEA, added, “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.” More detail is available in the official Cassava Technologies press release.

Why this moment matters

Global demand for AI compute keeps climbing, while Africa’s access has lagged. Locally hosted capacity reduces latency and, just as important, keeps data subject to local rules. The New Lines Institute notes that Cassava’s AI data center model can enable startups, enterprises and governments to move faster by providing AI as a service across healthcare, agriculture and fintech. Their analysis on accelerating U.S.-Africa tech collaboration highlights the strategic implications.

Recommended tech

As large data centers bring heavy-duty AI compute to the cloud, capable AI PCs are making on-device AI more practical too. The TechBull suggests the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3X AI Laptop for developers and creators who want responsive local AI tools.

Sector impact from healthcare to fintech

High-performance compute unlocks faster diagnostics and drug discovery in healthcare, precision agriculture that boosts yields, and smarter fraud detection and credit modeling in financial services. Africa’s financial technology ecosystem has been surging, and this step stands to accelerate the fintech gold rush with better, cheaper inference at scale.

For companies that want to plug into AI without heavy engineering, user-friendly automation platforms are also gaining traction. Tools like Make.com help teams build AI-powered workflows that connect data, apps and services with minimal code.

“AI is helping innovators solve our greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services and many other industries creating opportunity in Africa,” Nvidia’s Zuiderveld said.

Data stays in Africa

For years, much of Africa’s data has been stored and processed abroad, which slows innovation and complicates privacy. Local AI infrastructure changes that calculus. It supports a broader push toward digital sovereignty and answers concerns about whether foreign-funded African startups are truly African if their critical data and compute live offshore.

The New Lines Institute notes that the approach “ensures data will remain within the continent’s borders and promote Africa’s digital sovereignty.” Cassava says the initiative is financed with its own resources, reinforcing the self-reliance theme. More on the significance is covered by Empower Africa.

The road ahead

Execution will involve tight coordination with regulators, grid operators and universities, along with workforce training to meet demand for AI talent. Power reliability and efficient cooling remain priorities for any large-scale data center in the region. Cassava’s investments in connectivity and energy aim to reduce those bottlenecks as capacity scales.

“The long-term goal is to give startups, small businesses and researchers access to powerful AI tools directly within Africa, eliminating the need to depend on external platforms,” Masiyiwa said. Accenture’s regional leadership also underscored momentum, with Mauro Macchi noting that AI is opening new paths to competitiveness and growth across Africa.

The partnership goes beyond installing hardware. It lays the groundwork for a homegrown AI ecosystem that can build, train and deploy models locally. As Masiyiwa put it, building digital infrastructure for the AI economy is now a priority if Africa is to fully participate in the fourth industrial revolution.