CAPE TOWN, South Africa – November 18, 2025 — Cassava Technologies and The Rockefeller Foundation have announced a major collaboration aimed at expanding access to high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) computing for non-governmental organizations across Africa. The initiative is part of a broader effort to ensure that the continent actively participates in the fast-growing global AI economy, projected to reach US$1.2 trillion in value.
Under the partnership, Cassava Technologies will provide advanced compute capacity—powered by NVIDIA infrastructure—from its newly launched AI data centers to several Rockefeller Foundation grantees working in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.
The initiative is designed to support African-led innovation in agriculture, healthcare, and education—three sectors where AI has the potential to dramatically improve outcomes for millions.
Africa’s AI Potential Meets Infrastructure Gaps
Despite being home to nearly 20% of the world’s population, Africa currently hosts less than 1% of global data center capacity, a bottleneck that limits the continent’s ability to experiment, build, and deploy AI solutions at scale.
Cassava Technologies President and Group CEO, Hardy Pemhiwa, emphasized that this collaboration is meant to close that gap:
“AI gives Africa one of its greatest opportunities for economic development. But developers need local infrastructure to create African solutions for African challenges. Our NVIDIA-powered AI factory will enable startups, enterprises, public institutions, and researchers to build inclusive, locally trained AI applications.”
Early Beneficiaries: Agriculture, Health, Education
The Rockefeller Foundation selected organizations already using AI in high-impact community programs:
1. Digital Green (Ethiopia & Kenya) – AI for Smallholder Farmers
Digital Green’s Farmer.Chat assistant is using AI to offer real-time agricultural advice at a fraction of the traditional cost.
CEO Rikin Gandhi said access to on-continent GPUs will transform their work:
“We can now develop better speech-to-text, translation, and image-recognition models specific to Africa’s languages and farming ecologies—at scale.”
2. Jacaranda Health (Kenya) – AI for Maternal & Child Health
The Kenyan non-profit is developing tools that connect mothers and babies to emergency care in real-time.
Co-Executive Director Cynthia Kahumbura noted:
“Local compute resources help us build culturally relevant, multilingual AI that saves lives and reduces maternal mortality.”
3. Rising Academies (Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone) – AI for Learning
Rising Academies has used AI tools to assist more than 13,000 students in Rwanda alone, helping teachers cut grading time and improving literacy and numeracy outcomes.
Head of Rwanda Programs Fidele Hagenimana said:
“AI is leveling the playing field for rural learners. Access to better compute capacity will accelerate our mission to reach every child.”
Building Africa’s AI Future
This year, Cassava launched GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), expanding access to NVIDIA-powered compute for enterprises, start-ups, and institutions. Additional AI hubs are being deployed in East, West, and North Africa.
Dr. Rajiv Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, said the partnership reflects a commitment to equitable technology access:
“If we get AI right in Africa, we will help create jobs, expand opportunity, and unlock new pathways for prosperity. Every community deserves access to the tools of the future.”
Pemhiwa added that the goal is to ensure Africans become creators—not just consumers—of AI technologies.
