Pan-African technology conglomerate Cassava Technologies has secured an investment from NVIDIA, adding the US chipmaking giant to a high-profile list of backers that already includes Google, British International Investment (BII), and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
While the size of the investment, announced today, was not disclosed, the move signals a significant deepening of the two companies’ strategic alignment. It validates Cassava’s push to move beyond providing core digital infrastructure and become the key provider of high-performance computing for Africa’s burgeoning AI sector.
Hardy Pemhiwa, President and Group CEO of Cassava Technologies, stated the investment is an “important milestone” expected to “catalyze the further expansion of our digital infrastructure and services.”
From Connectivity to AI Factories
The investment is the next logical step in a partnership formalized last year. Cassava previously announced an ambitious plan to build the continent’s first “AI factories,” powered by NVIDIA’s supercomputing technology.
This initiative is slated to begin in South Africa by June 2025, with subsequent expansions planned for Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, and Egypt.
The term “AI factory,” heavily promoted by NVIDIA, describes data centres that are purpose-built for the intense, parallel-processing workloads required by artificial intelligence. Unlike traditional data centres that handle diverse tasks, these facilities are optimised for one thing: processing massive datasets to train and deploy AI models.
For Africa, this addresses a critical gap. Currently, many African businesses and researchers must rely on expensive, high-latency infrastructure located outside the continent.
Cassava’s founder, Strive Masiyiwa, has framed the initiative as essential for Africa’s “fourth industrial revolution.” The goal is to provide local businesses and startups with the tools to develop localised AI solutions for regional challenges in agriculture, healthcare, and finance, without needing to “look beyond Africa to get it.”
A Vertically Integrated Stack
NVIDIA’s investment backs a company that has spent years assembling the necessary, vertically integrated components to execute this vision. Cassava operates a portfolio of distinct business units:
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies: Operates one of Africa’s largest independent fibre networks, spanning over 110,000 kilometres.
- Africa Data Centres: Provides the physical, co-location facilities that will house the new AI infrastructure, with a stated focus on energy efficiency — a critical factor for power-hungry AI chips.
- Liquid C2 & Cassava.ai: Offer the cloud, cybersecurity, and AI-specific platform services that will run on top of the hardware.
- Sasai Fintech: A unit focused on digital payments and financial services, representing a key potential customer for the new AI capabilities.
Building on Investor Momentum
The NVIDIA backing builds on a wave of significant international investment, underscoring growing confidence in Africa’s digital infrastructure.
Last year, Cassava secured a $310 million funding package. This included $90 million in equity from the DFC, Google, and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund), aimed at expanding its fibre and data centre network to bridge the continent’s “digital divide.”
That round was supplemented by a $220 million debt refinancing agreement for its Liquid Intelligent Technologies unit, co-ordinated by Standard Bank, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), Nedbank, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
This pattern of funding suggests a clear two-phase strategy: first, secure the capital to lay the foundational connectivity and data centre footprint. Second, leverage that infrastructure to build and deploy high-value services like AI. The investment from NVIDIA, the world’s pre-eminent provider of AI hardware and software, solidifies Cassava’s position as a foundational platform for Africa’s emerging AI economy.