NVIDIA has partnered with Cassava Technologies in a landmark $700m deal to build AI-ready data centres across Africa, marking NVIDIA\u2019s first direct infrastructure investment on the continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The initiative, launched in June, began with the delivery of 3,000 NVIDIA GPUs to a Cassava-built facility in South Africa. Over the next three to four years, a further 12,000 GPUs will be deployed across Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco to support the adoption of AI in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture and fintech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike state-led Chinese investments, NVIDIA\u2019s approach relies on private sector execution, with Cassava leading the design and delivery of localised infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfrica has historically contended with receiving second-rate technology\u201d said Ziaad Suleman, CEO of Cassava Technologies SA and Botswana. \u201cThis partnership will help flip the script and bring high-performance computing to local developers and data-driven industries.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bridging Africa\u2019s AI compute gap<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The partnership targets Africa\u2019s critical computing shortfall. According to the UNDP, only 5% of African AI practitioners currently have access to the compute power required for advanced development and just one fifth of those have on-premises GPU access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNVIDIA dominates the global GPU market with a 93% share\u201d said Eric Omorogieva, analyst at the New Lines Institute. \u201cBringing its hardware to Africa could be a game changer for local innovation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To complement the infrastructure rollout, Cassava has signed a MoU with the South African AI Association, giving more than 3,000 AI professionals direct access to GPU clusters and supporting talent development alongside technical capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Geopolitical shift in tech strategy<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The investment reflects a broader US shift towards commercial diplomacy, positioning private investment as a counterbalance to China\u2019s Belt and Road and Digital Silk Road initiatives. While Chinese firms offer cost-effective AI models, US companies continue to lead in hardware performance, particularly GPUs that power advanced AI systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAccess to advanced chips and infrastructure will help African nations move from AI consumers to AI creators\u201d said Omorogieva. \u201cThis deal may unlock the continent\u2019s potential to build world-class, indigenous AI solutions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The NVIDIA and Cassava collaboration signals a new phase in Africa\u2019s digital evolution, focused on performance, local empowerment and the infrastructure needed to drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution from within. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NVIDIA has partnered with Cassava Technologies in a landmark $700m deal to build AI-ready data centres across Africa, marking NVIDIA\u2019s first direct infrastructure investment on the continent. The initiative, launched in June, began with the delivery of 3,000 NVIDIA GPUs to a Cassava-built facility in South Africa. Over the next three to four years, a further 12,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2418,"featured_media":79000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16131,17681,18709,18710,17921,46,7383,19107,399],"tags":[11491,496,14937,388,8618,48,5333],"class_list":["post-78998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-ai","category-artificial-intelligence","category-data-centers","category-data-centre-technologies","category-data-centres","category-digital-transformation","category-latest-projects","category-more-news","tag-africa-data-centres","tag-ai","tag-cassava-technologies","tag-cybersecurity","tag-gpus","tag-infrastructure","tag-nvidia"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78999,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78998\/revisions\/78999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}