JOHANNESBURG—African technology mogul Strive Masiyiwa, founder of Cassava Technologies, has announced a groundbreaking partnership with U.S. tech giant NVIDIA to establish Africa’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Factory. This multi-million-dollar initiative, named “Project Mufungi,” is designed to provide the continent with the high-performance computing infrastructure necessary to compete globally in the age of AI.
The collaboration directly addresses the significant gap in computing power that has historically hindered African startups and researchers, positioning the continent for a dramatic technological leap.
Strategic Investment and Deployment
Cassava Technologies is investing up to $720 million in the AI expansion, with NVIDIA supplying its cutting-edge hardware and software architecture. The project will roll out in phases across five key African nations:
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Phase One: The first AI factory, housing 3,000 NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), is set to be operational in South Africa by June 2025.
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Expansion: Over the next three to four years, an additional 9,000 GPUs will be deployed across Cassava’s data centers in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria, bringing the total GPU count to 12,000.
This high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure is crucial, as it provides the supercomputers and software needed to train complex AI models—a capability previously scarce on the continent.
Empowering African Innovation and Data Sovereignty
The core objective of the AI Factory is to democratize access to advanced computing power across various critical sectors:
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Sectoral Impact: It will empower industries such as healthcare (diagnostics), agriculture (precision farming), finance (FinTech solutions), and education (personalized learning models) to develop homegrown AI solutions.
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Accessibility: By delivering AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS), the facility will remove the prohibitive cost barriers for African businesses, startups, and researchers, allowing them to focus on innovation.
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Digital Sovereignty: A key benefit is the guarantee that AI training and data processing occur locally, keeping sensitive African data within Africa’s borders and ensuring compliance with local regulations.
Masiyiwa explained that the project was inspired by a challenge from Aliko Dangote and Olusegun Obasanjo to pursue ambitious, transformative projects. “If Aliko can raise $19 billion [for his refinery], surely I should be able to raise a few billion dollars to get AI Compute started in Africa,” Masiyiwa recalled thinking.
This collaboration positions Africa not merely as a consumer of global AI, but as a developer and exporter of indigenous AI solutions, thereby accelerating its role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
