Zimbabwe’s richest man, Strive Masiyiwa, has unveiled a $720 million plan to build five artificial intelligence factories across Africa through his company Cassava Technologies.
The facilities are slated for South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco, with the first already under construction in South Africa.
Masiyiwa said the initiative is aimed at giving African countries direct access to advanced AI infrastructure rather than depending on overseas cloud providers.
He described the project as part of Cassava’s “Sovereign AI Cloud” strategy, which seeks to enable African nations to host and run their own AI systems locally.
“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 said.
With a net worth of about $1.3 billion, Masiyiwa built Econet Wireless into one of Africa’s largest telecom groups before expanding Cassava into cloud computing, fintech, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
The company’s first AI factory in South Africa will run on 3,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), much of which has already been reserved by African researchers and developers.
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Cassava says the facilities will help close a significant gap in Africa’s digital economy, where only around 5 percent of AI talent currently has access to the computing power required to train advanced models, according to Business Insider.
Building local infrastructure, the company argues, could allow more African researchers to create homegrown AI tools in areas such as finance, health, education, and agriculture.
The new factories will be connected to Cassava’s broader digital network, which includes Africa Data Centres, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and Liquid C2, all of which provide internet connectivity, cloud services, and cybersecurity across the continent.
Earlier this year, Cassava also launched a dedicated AI business unit and signed partnerships with global technology firms including Microsoft, AWS, Google, and Anthropic to support African developers.
Analysts say the initiative could strengthen Africa’s position in the global AI industry while keeping sensitive data within the continent.
It is also expected to reduce costs for local startups and governments, which currently pay high fees to store and process data overseas.
If construction stays on schedule, all five AI factories are expected to be operational by late 2026, positioning Cassava Technologies as one of the leading builders of AI infrastructure in Africa.
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Image Credit: The World Bank Group
