Cassava Applied sciences could make investments as a lot as US$720-million (R14-billion) in Africa’s first synthetic intelligence manufacturing facility that will likely be constructed by Nvidia.
The pan-African know-how agency based by Zimbabwean telecommunications tycoon Try Masiyiwa plans to deploy accelerated computing and AI software program from the US firm in South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco.
“If we don’t take step one to deploy our personal capital, nevertheless restricted it possibly, we will’t count on others to go first,” Hardy Pemhiwa, the president and group CEO at Cassava, mentioned in an interview. “That is about guaranteeing that Africa doesn’t get left behind.”
South Africa would be the first recipient of the AI-powered knowledge centres with 3 000 graphic processing items, or GPUs, from Nvidia deployed by June.
“We intend over the following three to 4 years to put in 12 000 of them throughout Africa, beginning with the three 000 in South Africa,” Pemhiwa mentioned. “The GPUs themselves are like laying fibre, the funding is admittedly about constructing the entire AI ecosystem.”
A single GPU prices between $45 000 and $60 000.
Nvidia, which controls 93% of the GPU market globally, was a pure selection for Cassava as they “are market leaders”, in line with Pemhiwa. One other attraction is Cassava can promote extra capability to different Nvidia cloud purchasers wherever they’re on this planet.
Goal
“There isn’t anyone that has constructed an ecosystem past GPUs and the AI manufacturing facility is principally the primary factor that Nvidia does all through the world,” Pemhiwa added.
Cassava’s African AI manufacturing facility will goal researchers in universities, start-ups and builders in varied sectors together with healthcare, fintech and governments.
Learn: Microsoft to take a position billions in AI knowledge centres in South Africa
In the meantime, Microsoft has pulled again on knowledge centre tasks around the globe, suggesting the corporate is taking a more durable have a look at its plans to construct the server farms powering AI and the cloud. — (c) 2025 Bloomberg LP
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Cassava Applied sciences to construct ‘AI manufacturing facility’ to serve Africa
