Africa, the new hub for AI

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Rwandan President Paul Kagame speaking at the opening ceremony of the Summit, 03/04/2025. (Photo: WEF)

The African continent is experiencing a turning point in the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). The Global AI Summit in Africa, held in Kigali, Rwanda, marks not only a symbolic event but also a practical inflection point for consolidating strategies and investments in infrastructure, talent, and technological governance. One of the main catalysts of this moment is the announcement by Cassava Technologies, a company founded by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, which, in partnership with Nvidia, will install the continent’s first “AI factory,” with data centers initially in South Africa and planned expansion to Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria.

Cassava’s proposal is to provide local access to GPU-based supercomputers (the same used by companies like OpenAI, Tesla, and Google), reducing reliance on expensive and remote foreign cloud services. Currently, only 5% of African AI professionals have access to sufficient computational resources for research and innovation, making this initiative a game-changer. As sector leaders point out, local infrastructure will allow for faster AI model training, reduced costs, and the promotion of solutions tailored to African realities—from agriculture and health to financial services and education.

Another important aspect is the possibility of increasing African representation in the data used to train AI models. Today, there is an underrepresentation of African languages, dialects, and cultural characteristics in global datasets, leading to biases and failures in systems such as facial recognition. With greater access to infrastructure, it will be possible to develop models trained on local data, more accurately reflecting the continent’s demographic diversity and economic and environmental contexts.

This technical advancement is strategically aligned with the Kigali Declaration on AI, signed by representatives of dozens of African countries in April 2025. In the preamble of the document, the signatories recognize the transformative potential of AI and reaffirm their commitment to frameworks such as the African Union’s Continental Strategy on AI, the UN’s Global Digital Compact, and the AU’s Agenda 2063. The Declaration sets out key guiding principles: digital sovereignty, inclusion, cultural diversity, ethics, transparency, environmental sustainability, and human rights protection. 

From left to right: Strive Masiyiwa (founder of Cassava Technologies), Crystal Rugege (Managing Director of the Rwanda Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution), Musalia Mudavadi (First Cabinet Secretary of Kenya), Faure Gnassingbé (President of Togo), Paul Kagame (President of Rwanda), Mahamoud Youssouf (Chairperson of the African Union Commission), Senait Fisseha (Chief Advisor to the Director-General of the WHO), Paula Ingabire (Minister of Technology) and Doreen Bogdan-Martin (Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union), 03/04/2025. (Photo: WEF)

Building on these principles, practical commitments were established in seven key areas:

1. Talent: Countries committed to training a new generation of AI specialists through adapted school curricula, strengthening PhD programs, launching digital literacy campaigns for the general public, and creating an African AI Scientific Panel with local and diaspora experts.

   
   

2. Data: The plan includes creating open datasets and interoperable AI models, with governance grounded in data protection, diversity, and equity. This aims to correct historical biases in global databases—such as the underrepresentation of African languages or failures in facial recognition systems with darker skin tones.

   
   

3. Investment: The launch of a $60 billion African AI Fund is planned, with public, private, and philanthropic contributions, to develop infrastructure, support startups, finance research, and train talent, all with a focus on inclusion and social justice.

   
   

4. Governance: Signatory countries will support national AI policies aligned with the continental strategy and the creation of a pan-African platform for sharing regulatory best practices. Secure and coordinated cross-border data flows will also be promoted.

   
   

5. Institutional Cooperation: The African AI Council will be established, led by Smart Africa and the African Union Commission, with support from the International Telecommunication Union. Its aim is to ensure high-level coordination between governments, the private sector, academia, and civil society.

It is important to note that while the arrival of supercomputers marks technical progress, structural challenges remain—particularly deficient infrastructure, unreliable electricity supply, and limited mobile device access and connectivity for end users. However, experts view Cassava’s initiative as both a strategic and symbolic breakthrough: it represents the first major public commitment by an African company to seriously invest in computational power—something that may set an example and encourage other African tech leaders to follow suit.

Thus, Cassava Technologies’ move could mark the beginning of a profound transformation in Africa’s capacity for technological production and innovation, positioning the continent not just as a consumer, but also as a producer of artificial intelligence solutions.

References

LEWIS, N. Africa’s first “AI factory” could be a breakthrough for the continent. Disponível em: <https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/03/africa/africa-ai-cassava-technologies-nvidia-spc/index.html>.

The Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence. , 4 abr. 2025. Disponível em: <https://c4ir.rw/docs/Africa%20Declaration%20on%20Artificial%20Intelligence.pdf>