Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava joins Nvidia in World Bank push to bring AI computing to Africa

Cassava Technologies, the digital infrastructure group founded by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, has joined Nvidia as a knowledge partner in a new World Bank Group program to give developing countries shared access to artificial intelligence computing power.

The AI Infrastructure and Readiness Initiative was announced on Tuesday alongside the World Bank Group’s first digital strategy, which was launched in Seoul, TechTrendsKE reported. The program will offer governments in emerging markets pay-as-you-go access to graphics processing units, the chips used to train and run AI models.

Africa will be the initial focus, with Latin America also targeted. The World Bank is pitching the shared model as an alternative to countries building their own national data centers, which are costly and slow to set up.

The role adds to Cassava’s push to become a major supplier of AI computing in Africa. The company began deploying its Nvidia-powered AI Factory at data centers in South Africa earlier this year and plans to expand to Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco.

In late 2025, Cassava launched what it described as Africa’s first GPU-as-a-service offering. Masiyiwa said at the time that the company had acquired 12,000 Nvidia GPUs.

“Our goal is to give Africa the infrastructure to write its own future, using its own languages,” said Ahmed El Beheiry, Cassava’s chief operating officer and chief AI officer.

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga described the new strategy as aiming to deliver AI for the people. The strategy sets four priorities: expanding connectivity, making devices and data cheaper, strengthening digital services and skills, and preparing countries for AI. It places particular weight on “small AI,” meaning task-specific tools designed for local conditions.

The World Bank plans to combine loans, policy advice, private investment and guarantees to fund undersea cables, national networks, cheaper smartphones, digital identity and payment systems, and AI readiness.

The need is large. More than 2 billion people were offline globally in 2025, and only 23% of people in low-income countries used the internet, compared with 94% in high-income countries, according to the World Bank. About 1.2 billion young people are expected to reach working age over the next 10 to 15 years, while only about 420 million jobs are expected to be created.

Masiyiwa, who founded telecom group Econet Wireless, has made AI infrastructure a central part of his business in recent years. Cassava last month joined Vodafone and Egypt’s billionaire Elsewedy family to build Egypt’s first AI data center. The company also has plans for a 20-megawatt AI factory in Johannesburg, alongside its Cape Town site.