Zimbabwe’s richest man plans to build five new AI factories across Africa
The factories are expected to be built in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco.
Masiyiwa said the goal is to give major African markets access to their own advanced AI infrastructure, reducing reliance on overseas cloud providers.
“Our AI factory provides the infrastructure for innovation to scale, empowering African businesses, start-ups, and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure. Now they don’t have to look beyond Africa to get it,” he said.
Masiyiwa, who is worth about $1.3 billion, is known for building Econet Wireless into one of Africa’s largest telecom groups.
In recent years, he has expanded Cassava from telecoms into cloud computing, fintech, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Cassava says much of this computing power has already been reserved by African researchers and developers.
” alt=”Cassava’s planned AI factories will house thousands of high-performance Nvidia GPUs to power Africa’s AI infrastructure.” width=”790″ height=”375″ data-original=” /> Cassava’s planned AI factories will house thousands of high-performance Nvidia GPUs to power Africa’s AI infrastructure.
Company officials said the new facilities will help close a major gap in Africa’s digital economy.
Only about 5% of African AI talent currently has access to the high-performance computing power needed to train advanced AI models.
Building local infrastructure could allow more African researchers to develop homegrown tools in sectors like finance, education, health and agriculture.
Cassava also plans to link the AI factories to its wider digital network, which includes Africa Data Centres, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and Liquid C2.
These companies already provide data storage, internet connectivity and cybersecurity services across the continent.
Earlier this year, Cassava launched a dedicated AI business unit and signed partnerships with global tech firms including Microsoft, AWS, Google and Anthropic to support African developers.
It could also reduce costs for local startups and governments, who often pay high fees to store and process data overseas.
If completed on schedule, all five factories are expected to be operational by late 2026, positioning Cassava as one of the biggest builders of AI infrastructure in Africa.