African countries’ access to locally grown artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is expanding.

One of the continent’s leading technology providers, Cassava Technologies has launched its AI factory (data centre) in South Africa with more roll-outs planned for Morocco, Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria.

Powered by Nvidia, the data centre, in Cape Town, seeks to provide localised computing capacity and services – with built-in data sovereignty – to businesses and governments, Africa Business Communities reports.

The company plans to support AI development in African languages such as Swahili, Afrikaans and isiZulu.

‘Our goal is to give Africa the infrastructure to write its own future, using its own languages […] and data to build a digital legacy on its own terms,’ says Ahmed El Beheiry, Casava’s group COO and chief technology and AI officer.

Welcoming the opening of the AI factory, Happy Sithole, from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, said keeping data within African borders ‘enables us to develop specialised models for healthcare, energy, and agriculture tailored to our unique contexts’.

The factory follows the launch last year of Cassava’s AI Multi-Model Exchange, a digital platform that offers African developers access to global AI tools and large language models.

31 March 2026
Image: Freepik