Cassava Technologies is making a bold move to position Africa at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation with the launch of the continent’s first AI factory. The initiative aims to enhance digital infrastructure, drive localized AI solutions, and empower businesses with cutting-edge technology tailored for Africa’s unique economic landscape.

Cassava Technologies is set to revolutionize Africa’s digital landscape by launching the continent’s first AI factory to drive local innovation

Cassava Technologies is set to launch Africa’s inaugural Artificial Intelligence (AI) factory—a dedicated, secure data centre powered by NVIDIA AI computing technology.

The company announced that this new facility will offer cutting-edge AI processing capabilities to African enterprises, governments, and researchers, empowering them to create advanced AI solutions, streamline their operations, and stay ahead in an ever-evolving global landscape.

Cassava explained its vision stating: “It provides the supercomputers and software needed to train AI while keeping data within Africa’s borders.”

The company plans to implement NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI software, deploying NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) reference architectures at its South African data centres by June 2025. It also intends to expand to additional sites in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria.

The firm elaborated further saying: “Cassava’s AI Factory will leverage the company’s pan-African high-speed, ultra-low-latency, fiber-optic network with sustainable data centres to deliver AI as a Service (AIaaS).”

Highlighting the energy efficiency of its state-of-the-art facilities, Cassava noted that its ‘world-class’ data centres are engineered to minimize electricity use while handling intensive 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.”

According to Cassava, the AI Factory will grant businesses and researchers the necessary computing power to scale their operations, enhance productivity, and drive 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,” the company said.

Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chairman of Cassava, remarked: “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.”

Jaap Zuiderveld, VP EMEA at NVIDIA, also commented on the transformative impact of AI. He noted: “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.”