Cassava Technologies launches GPU-as-a-service, a first for Africa

Cassava Technologies has announced an African first GPU-as-a-service, powered by Nvidia’s hardware.

The company, being Nvidia’s first preferred cloud partner in Africa, services the continent through data centres across South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco.

Speaking at a keynote at AfricaCom, Cassava Technologies Chairman and founder Strive Masiyiwa shared that he met Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley a few months ago to sign an agreement to purchase the first 12 000 GPUs for Africa from the company.

At the time there were only 80 Nvidia GPUs in Africa. Cassava will now bring 12 000 to distribute across its five sites.

Masiyiwa confirmed some of them are currently being installed at their data centre located just outside of Cape Town.

He added that they are working with DeepMind who are responsible for Google Gemini, to integrate all mobile operators.

“We’ve already begun to integrate mobile operators for feedback into our AI factory,” says Masiyiwa.

“What it means is that you can begin to offer customers the Gemini app, as we’ve already integrated the Claude app. Many of you are already using it through our teams here,” added Masiyiwa.

Hardy Pemhiwa, President & Group CEO of Cassava Technologies says its commitment to growing Africa’s AI ecosystem is not just about technology; it’s about empowerment.

“We want to enable African businesses to emerge as leaders and innovators in AI, not just consumers. We want to empower Africa to write our own AI future, in our own languages, with our own data using local compute infrastructure,” says Pemhiwa.

The company adds that deploying high-performance compute locally in Africa is a ‘game-changer’.

“It enables entrepreneurs, governments, and enterprises to develop and deploy AI solutions cost-effectively and with greater sovereignty.”

Cassava says its GPUaaS offering democratises access to cutting-edge AI computing capacity, empowering African businesses, governments, and researchers to develop innovative AI solutions, streamline operations, and stay competitive in a fast-changing world.