Masiyiwa snubs Zimbabwe on AI factories projects

Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa has unveiled plans to establish five artificial intelligence (AI) factories across Africa over the next year, as part of a $720 million investment through his company, Cassava Technologies. The initiative aims to provide major African markets with local AI infrastructure, reducing dependency on overseas cloud providers.

The factories are set to be built in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco, with the first already under construction in South Africa and equipped with advanced Nvidia processors. Masiyiwa described the project as part of Cassava's "Sovereign AI Cloud" strategy, designed to empower African businesses, startups, and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI systems hosted locally.

"Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, allowing African enterprises and researchers to access advanced AI without looking beyond the continent," Masiyiwa said.

Masiyiwa, valued at approximately $1.3 billion, is best known for growing Econet Wireless into one of Africa's largest telecom groups. In recent years, he has expanded Cassava into cloud computing, fintech, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

Cassava officials noted that much of the computing power in these factories has already been reserved by African researchers and developers, addressing a major gap in the continent's digital economy. Currently, only about 5% of African AI talent has access to the high-performance computing required to train advanced AI models. The new infrastructure is expected to enable more local development in sectors including finance, health, education, and agriculture.

The AI factories will also be linked to Cassava's broader digital network, which encompasses Africa Data Centres, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and Liquid C2, all providing data storage, connectivity, and cybersecurity services across the continent. Earlier this year, Cassava launched a dedicated AI business unit and forged partnerships with global tech companies, including Microsoft, AWS, Google, and Anthropic, to support African developers.

Completion of all five factories is expected by late 2026, positioning Cassava as one of the leading builders of AI infrastructure in Africa and potentially lowering costs for startups and governments that currently rely on overseas data processing services.