London-based Cassava Technologies is planning a big expansion in Africa. The Nvidia-backed tech player is reportedly joining hands with industry giants including Google and Anthropic to inject advanced AI tools for the upgrade of local industries in Africa. Its aim is to create an “AI factory” in the region, Bloomberg said on Tuesday, November 18.
Founded in 2021 by Zimbabwean telecom tycoon Strive Masiyiwa, Cassava operates across Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The company is touted among the largest international fibre optic network providers in Africa alongside renewable energy and data centre solutions. The company announced a partnership with Nvidia in March this year to build AI centres in multiple parts of Africa.
Masiyiwa plans to raise as much as $700 million to update Cassava’s existing data centres in Africa and add new, more advanced ones to the cluster. The funds will be raised as debt and equity, the Bloomberg report said citing company CEO Hardy Pemhiwa from the ongoing Africa Business Summit.
The company, as part of its expansion plans, will be tapping into Nvidia to secure advanced AI software including graphics processing units (GPUs) to upgrade its data centres located in Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt.
Nvidia is yet to confirm its involvement in Cassava’s Africa expansion roadmap. The development could be elaborated on by the chipmaker on November 19 as the company is slated to disclose its Q3 results. Company CEO Jensen Huang had earlier forecasted “half-a-trillion” revenue for the next year.
The leadership at Cassava is yet to share elaborate details on its ongoing partnership discussions with Google and Anthropic.