Faith Nyasuguta
Zimbabwe’s richest man, Strive Masiyiwa, is set to change Africa’s digital landscape with a bold plan to build five artificial intelligence (AI) factories across the continent. Through his tech conglomerate Cassava Technologies, Masiyiwa is investing $720 million to construct these facilities in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt within the next year.
Masiyiwa says the project – dubbed the “Sovereign AI Cloud” strategy – is designed to give African nations control over their own AI infrastructure, reducing heavy reliance on foreign cloud providers. “Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, start-ups, and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure. Now they don’t have to look beyond Africa to get it,” he explained.
The first factory, already under construction in South Africa, will run on 3,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) – powerful hardware essential for training and running AI models. Cassava says much of this computing capacity has already been reserved by African developers and researchers eager to test and build their own AI systems locally. Over the next few years, the other four factories will roll out similar high-performance capabilities, bringing a combined 12,000 GPUs online.
Masiyiwa, whose business empire began with Econet Wireless before expanding into cloud computing, fintech, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, is leveraging Cassava’s existing assets – including Africa Data Centres, Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Liquid C2 – to link the new AI factories into a single network. This integration will provide data storage, high-speed connectivity and secure services across the continent, creating a comprehensive digital backbone for Africa’s AI ambitions.
Analysts believe the project could mark a turning point for Africa’s position in the global AI industry. At present, only about 5% of African AI talent has access to the high-performance computing power required to train advanced AI models. With powerful infrastructure on the continent, local innovators will be able to develop homegrown tools in finance, education, healthcare and agriculture – sectors where AI could have transformative effects.
Cassava has also forged partnerships with global tech firms such as Microsoft, Google, AWS and Anthropic to support African developers and integrate world-class tools into the new facilities. By doing so, the company aims to cut costs for local start-ups and governments, who currently pay high fees to store and process data overseas.
If completed on schedule, all five factories will be operational by late 2026, positioning Cassava Technologies as one of the largest builders of AI infrastructure in Africa. For Masiyiwa, the project is about more than just technology; it’s about sovereignty and self-reliance, placing Africa at the heart of the world’s AI revolution instead of on its sidelines.
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