Africa’s first ‘AI factory’ could be a breakthrough for the continent
The launch of Africa's first 'AI factory' has the potential to revolutionize technological development on the continent. This innovation could pave the way for advancements in artificial intelligence and tech industries in Africa. The factory is expected to provide opportunities for local talent and drive economic growth in the region. This breakthrough marks a significant step towards harnessing AI capabilities in Africa.
There’s excitement bubbling in Kigali, Rwanda, ahead of the Global AI Summit on Africa, which opens today, promising economic opportunities and innovation. Not least because of last week’s announcement from Cassava Technologies, a tech firm founded by Zimbabwean telecoms billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, that it would be building Africa’s first “artificial intelligence factory,” in partnership with leading AI chipmaker Nvidia.
Nvidia’s supercomputers, which use graphic processing units, or GPUs, (the chips that often power AI), will be deployed at Cassava’s data centers in South Africa from as early as June, before being rolled out across the company’s other facilities in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria.
Africa's AI Revolution
Africa has fallen behind the global AI boom due in part to a lack of computing power. Analysis from Zindi, a community of 80,000 AI builders across 52 African countries, found that only 5% of Africa’s AI practitioners have access to computational power for research and innovation. Better access to GPUs will help to “drive the AI revolution” across the continent, says Alex Tsado, founder and director of Alliance4AI, a non-profit that helps African institutions adopt emerging technologies.
Currently, there are no big GPU clusters in Africa, and this is holding innovators back. Tsado explains that without access to GPUs, building AI solutions takes much longer, hindering progress compared to those with access to better resources in regions like the US or Europe.
Cassava's AI Factory
While Cassava is yet to divulge details of its deployment plan, it said in a press release that Nvidia’s GPU-based supercomputers will enable faster AI model training. The data centers will ensure businesses and researchers have access to the AI computing power required to build, train, scale, and deploy AI in a secure environment.
Strive Masiyiwa, in the press release, stated, “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.”
Democratizing AI
The high cost of hardware relative to income levels in Africa has been one of the main barriers to AI adoption. Some of Nvidia’s most powerful GPUs sell for as much as $40,000. The price of buying a GPU in Kenya represents 75% of GDP per capita, making it 31 times more expensive than one in Germany, in relative terms.
For Zindi’s network of AI builders, the development of local data centers with Nvidia GPU-powered supercomputers will be a “game-changer,” according to Celina Lee, its CEO and co-founder. This move would democratize AI development, strengthen local AI ecosystems, and drive innovation across industries like agriculture, healthcare, and financial services, tailored to Africa’s unique challenges.
Increased access to AI infrastructure could help to address issues such as the underrepresentation of African languages and dialects in global AI training datasets and biases in training data, such as those seen in facial recognition systems.
While there are still infrastructure challenges to overcome, both Tsado and Lee see Cassava’s initiative as a significant step in the right direction for African tech and AI communities.