Africa Tech Festival: Cassava reveals 
AI factory plans

Digital infrastructure provider Cassava Technologies announced at AfricaCom 2025 in Cape Town last week that it has brought thousands of Nvidia GPUs into the continent. These are the computer processors regarded as most effective for AI processes.

The move brings the company one step closer to completing its AI factory with a network GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS) offering. 

GPUaaS is a cloud computing model where one can rent access to powerful graphics processing units over the internet to perform complex computations without having to buy or manage the physical hardware. Cassava says it is the first preferred Nvidia Cloud Partner (NCP) in Africa.

Strive Masiyiwa, Cassava founder and chairman, said during a keynote address that he travelled to Silicon Valley a few months ago to meet with Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

“We signed an agreement to purchase the first GPUs for the African continent,” said Masiyiwa. “They told us there were only 80 GPUs on the Africa continent. I told Mr Huang, I wanted 12,000.”

Masiyiwa said Huang agreed to this, and the 12,000 GPUs are currently being distributed across five sites. One of these sites, he said, is just outside Cape Town.

Carlo Ruiz, Nvidia EMEA VP for AI solutions and operations EMEA, told Gadget: “Cassava is one of the great examples at AfricaCom where you see that they’re working to bring AI resources at scale in place within the region.

“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for Africa. Europe took a while to get moving, from ambition to execution. I see it in several places in Africa. I see the same thing from North Africa but also South Africa. There are some great initiatives underway where people are thinking holistically now about implementing AI factories.

“It’s happening, but it’s in specific places, and I think there’s much more opportunity. Because if you look at energy availability, you look at space, if you see the potential also for renewable energy. I think Africa has even more potential to step up.”

Cassava’s business units include Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Liquid C2, Africa Data Centres, Distributed Power Africa, and Sasai Fintech. The data centre facilities are located across South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco.

Hardy Pemhiwa, Cassava CEO and president, said: “Cassava’s commitment to growing Africa’s AI ecosystem is not just about technology; it’s about empowerment. Securing the position as the first preferred Nvidia Cloud Partner in Africa enables us to play a crucial role in the continent’s AI ecosystem.

“At Cassava, we want to enable African businesses to emerge as leaders and innovators in AI, not just consumers. We want to empower Africa to write our own AI future, in our own languages, with our own data using local compute infrastructure.”

The company says deploying high-performance compute locally in Africa is a game-changer. It aims to enable entrepreneurs, governments, and enterprises to develop and deploy AI solutions cost-effectively and with greater sovereignty.

Cassava says the GPUaaS democratises access to cutting-edge AI computing capacity, empowering African businesses, governments, and researchers to develop innovative AI solutions, streamline operations, and stay competitive in a fast-changing world.