Cassava Technologies has announced plans to build Africa’s first AI Factory, an advanced data centre facility powered by NVIDIA AI computing technology. The initiative aims to equip African businesses, governments, and researchers with high-performance AI infrastructure to develop homegrown AI solutions while ensuring data sovereignty.
The AI Factory, set to be deployed at Cassava’s data centres in South Africa by June 2025, will be powered by NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI software, utilizing NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) reference architectures. Expansion is planned across Cassava’s other data centres in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria.
Cassava’s AI Factory is designed to enable AI as a Service (AIaaS) by leveraging the company’s extensive pan-African fibre-optic network and energy-efficient, low-latency data centres. The NVIDIA GPU-powered supercomputers will accelerate AI model training, fine-tuning, and inference, helping businesses and researchers innovate more efficiently.
“Building digital infrastructure for the AI economy is a priority if Africa is to take full advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Chairman of Cassava Technologies. “Our AI Factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, startups, and researchers to turn their bold ideas into real-world breakthroughs—without having to look beyond Africa.”
Cassava’s move positions it as a key player in the African AI ecosystem, becoming the first to introduce these advanced computing platforms on the continent as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner. The AI Factory will support local businesses in scaling AI-driven solutions for industries such as healthcare, agriculture, finance, and energy.
By keeping AI data processing within Africa’s borders, the AI Factory will ensure compliance with local and global regulations while reducing reliance on foreign data infrastructure.