Zimbabwean telecommunications mogul Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava Technologies is partnering with American tech giant Nvidia to build what it touts as “Africa’s first AI factory.”

Cassava, which is headquartered in the UK, announced that it will establish a powerful and “super-secure” data centre which will be powered by Nvidia AI computing technology.

Founded by Masiyiwa, Cassava says it will install Nvidia accelerated computing and AI software using Nvidia Cloud Partner (NCP) at its data centres in South Africa by June 2025.

The firm he executive chairs is also eyeing expansion at its data centres in Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco through the deal with Nvidia, among the world’s most valuable firms.

Cassava says this will enable African businesses, governments and researchers to access AI computing capacity to develop smarter AI products, modernize operations and stay competitive.

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“It provides the supercomputers and software needed to train AI while keeping data within Africa’s borders,” Cassava indicated in a statement.

Nvidia offers AI hardware and software and designs and supplies graphics processing units (GPUs) and application programming interfaces for high-performance computing and data science.

According to Cassava, NvidiaGPU-based supercomputers will power the AI factory and enable training of faster AI models, modification and superior inference capabilities.

The plant will use Cassava’s pan-African fibre-optic network and data centres to offer AI as a Service (AIaaS) aided by the Carlifornia-based firm with market cap of close to USD3 trillion.

“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,” stated Cassava.

According to Masiyiwa, the AI factory will for the first time bring new AI abilities to Africa.

“Building digital infrastructure for the AI economy is a priority if Africa is to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.

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

Nvidia VP for Europe, Middle East and Africa Jaap Zuiderveld stated that Cassava will offer infrastructure and software to enable firms and organisations to fast track AI development.

“AI is helping innovators solve our greatest challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy, financial services and many other industries creating opportunity in Africa,” he concluded.