Cassava Technologies expands AI infrastructure across Africa with NVIDIA-powered AI factories

Cassava Technologies has announced a major push to scale artificial intelligence infrastructure across Africa through the deployment of NVIDIA-powered AI Factories.

This is beginning in South Africa and set to expand into Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco.

The initiative marks a significant step towards strengthening Africa’s digital sovereignty by enabling local access to high-performance computing and reducing reliance on foreign data infrastructure.

Cassava, which is Africa’s first cloud partner of NVIDIA, said the AI Factory model is designed to provide African businesses, developers, and governments with advanced tools to build, train, and deploy AI solutions locally.

Ahmed El Beheiry, group COO and Chief Technology & AI Officer at Cassava Technologies said the project is about more than infrastructure.

He described it as a strategic effort to empower African innovation by ensuring that the continent becomes a creator not just a consumer of global technology.

“Our goal is to give Africa the infrastructure to write its own future, using its own languages and data,” El Beheiry said, noting that the company is prioritising local language models starting with Swahili, Zulu, and Afrikaans.

The AI Factory rollout builds on Cassava’s earlier launch of its AI platform, Cassava AI Multi-Model Exchange (CAIMEx), introduced in 2025.

The platform provides developers access to leading AI models and tools, enabling them to build and fine-tune applications tailored to African markets.

Cassava has also introduced its Autonomous Network solution, which leverages AI to improve telecom network performance and is targeted at mobile network operators across the continent.

With its latest deployment, the company is offering services such as GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS), lowering the barrier to entry for organisations that previously lacked access to advanced computing resources.

A key feature of the AI Factory model is its focus on sovereign AI, ensuring that data generated within Africa remains on the continent. This approach allows for the development of locally relevant AI models while addressing data privacy, regulatory, and security concerns.

Haseeb Budhani, CEO of Rafay Systems, described the development as a critical engine for digital transformation, enabling African enterprises to build resilient AI systems while maintaining control over their data.

Similarly, South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) noted that local AI infrastructure would support research in key sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and energy.

Zindi, an African data science platform, also welcomed the initiative, highlighting its potential to unlock AI talent across the continent and foster homegrown innovation.

Cassava Technologies said the expansion is part of its broader mission to reposition Africa as a global player in artificial intelligence by providing the infrastructure needed to support innovation at scale.

With operations spanning 94 countries through its various business units, including Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres, and Sasai Fintech, the company is aiming to build a fully integrated digital ecosystem.

By scaling AI infrastructure and enabling local innovation, Cassava is seeking to transform Africa’s role in the global technology space from a passive participant into an active creator of next-generation AI solutions.