Business Reporter
Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava Technologies has partnered with Vodafone Business and Egypt’s Elsewedy Electric to build the country’s first sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) data centre.
The project, announced in Cairo, will establish Africa Data Centres Egypt, starting with 20 megawatts (MW) of capacity and eventually expanding to 200MW.
The full project could attract up to US$1 billion in foreign investment, although the initial phase is expected to require about US$200 million. The development is also expected to create up to 200 direct and 2 000 indirect jobs.
The venture brings together three major players, with Vodafone providing enterprise and cloud services, Elsewedy Electric responsible for power, construction and infrastructure, and Cassava providing data-centre expertise and its relationship with US chipmaker Nvidia.
Separately, Vodafone Business and Cassava will develop an AI-focused facility within the wider project, which is expected to provide Nvidia-powered computing capacity to businesses and government institutions.
The facility will allow sensitive data to be stored and processed inside Egypt, supporting the country’s push for greater data sovereignty and reducing reliance on overseas infrastructure.
Cassava group chief technology and AI officer Ahmed El Beheiry said the project was aimed at enabling African businesses to develop and deploy AI technology locally rather than simply importing it.
For Masiyiwa, the Egyptian project expands Cassava’s growing data-centre and AI infrastructure footprint across Africa. The company has previously announced plans to deploy AI computing infrastructure in several African markets.
The Egyptian government expects the project to strengthen the country’s position as a regional digital infrastructure hub as demand for cloud computing and AI services accelerates across Africa.
The 200MW expansion will be developed over three years, with investment expected to increase progressively as capacity is added.
