Cassava Technologies has become Africa’s first NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP), marking a major milestone in the continent’s digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) journey.

Speaking at AfricaCom 2025, Cassava Technologies Founder and Executive Chairman Strive Masiyiwa said the partnership will see NVIDIA GPUs deployed across five African sites to support AI innovation and high-performance computing.

Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, start-ups and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure and now, they don’t have to look beyond Africa to get it,” Masiyiwa said.

By Ruvarashe Gora

Through collaborations with Google, Anthropic, and other global technology leaders, Cassava is expanding access to world-class AI tools designed for African industries such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and finance.

The first deployment site is located in South Africa, where Cassava plans to install 3,000 NVIDIA GPUs. The company intends to extend the rollout to Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and Morocco, investing up to US$720 million over four years.

Analysts say the partnership signals a shift in Africa’s position from being a consumer to a creator of innovation, while supporting local data sovereignty and capacity building in emerging technologies.

Cassava’s move to develop an AI-powered digital ecosystem could help bridge the infrastructure gap that has long limited African enterprises’ ability to compete globally in the AI era.