Cassava Rolls Out 12,000 Nvidia GPUs Across Africa
The African cloud firm is building AI factories on the continent and reselling Anthropic's Claude models through Amazon Bedrock.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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Cassava Technologies is deploying 12,000 Nvidia GPUs across Africa at a cost of up to $720 million, with the first AI factory now running in Cape Town. The company also became an authorized reseller of Anthropic's Claude models through Amazon Bedrock.
Why it matters
The build-out aims to give African businesses and researchers local access to advanced computing capacity instead of relying on overseas infrastructure. Nvidia and Google are shareholders in Cassava, linking the rollout to major global technology players.
The plan covers 12,000 Nvidia GPUs delivered across roughly 28 containerised shipments, with 3,000 in the first South African phase and 9,000 to follow in four other countries over three to four years. The deployment is a company plan, and the source gives no performance benchmarks for the installed hardware.
The players
Cassava Technologies
A pan-African technology company that operates cloud and data infrastructure across the continent and is a key player in the region's digital economy.
Nvidia
A global semiconductor company whose GPUs power most modern AI workloads, and which is also a shareholder in Cassava.
The details
Cassava acquired the GPUs and flew them in on about 28 containerised shipments, and the first AI factory in Cape Town is now operating. The company is lining up further sites in Johannesburg, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria, and is pairing the hardware with resale of Anthropic's Claude models.
Timeline
March 2025: Cassava first announced its plan to deploy 12,000 Nvidia GPUs.
September 8, 2025: Cassava, Vodafone and Elsewedy Electric announced the Africa Data Centres Egypt venture.
October 27, 2025: Cassava became an authorized reseller of Anthropic's Claude models through Amazon Bedrock.
November 2025: Cassava launched its GPU-as-a-service offering at the Africa Tech Festival.
The Tech Race
The World Bank's October GPU access initiative named Cassava and Nvidia as knowledge partners, marking an effort by a major development lender to widen African access to AI compute. Cassava's rollout moves that effort from announcement into physical infrastructure, with its first AI factory now in operation in Cape Town.
Businesses and developers in the countries receiving GPUs may gain access to local AI compute without routing workloads overseas. Users of Claude models resold through Amazon Bedrock can reach Anthropic's models via a regional provider, though the source does not say how pricing will compare.
The takeaway
Expanding local GPU capacity in African markets could reduce reliance on distant data centers for AI work. Watch whether the phased rollout meets its timelines, since the source gives no firm schedule for the later phases.
What happens next
Cassava plans to install the remaining 9,000 GPUs in Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt over the next three to four years, with Egypt's data centre venture aiming to grow from 20 to 200 megawatts.
Further reading
For more on how AI infrastructure is spreading beyond the usual hubs, see our Artificial Intelligence coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Daily News on African Billionaires and UHNWIs.
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