Cassava Technologies Chairman Strive Masiyiwa says Africa’s competitiveness in artificial intelligence will depend less on building large language models and more on investing in infrastructure, cloud capacity and practical deployment systems that can scale AI applications across the continent.
Speaking at the Google Cloud Summit South Africa, Masiyiwa said the next phase of the AI economy would be shaped by access to compute infrastructure and the ability to integrate AI into businesses and public services.
“AI competitiveness won’t be determined by models alone,” Masiyiwa said. “It will be determined by infrastructure, compute and the ability to put AI into production.”
The remarks add to a growing debate among policymakers and technology firms over how African economies can position themselves in the rapidly evolving AI sector, where the high costs of developing frontier models have concentrated power among a handful of global technology companies.
Masiyiwa said Africa’s opportunity lies instead in using AI to address practical economic and social challenges, building on investments already made in fibre-optic networks and data centers.
“Africa doesn’t need to lead the race to build foundation models,” he said. “It needs to lead in applying AI to solve real-world challenges.”
Cassava Technologies, founded by Masiyiwa, has expanded aggressively across digital infrastructure businesses including broadband networks, cloud services and data centers, positioning itself to benefit from rising demand for AI-related computing capacity in Africa.
The company has also deepened partnerships with major global technology firms as international cloud providers seek stronger footholds in African markets where digital adoption is accelerating but infrastructure gaps remain significant.
Masiyiwa said the focus should now shift from the theoretical possibilities of AI toward building systems capable of deploying the technology at scale.
“That means investing in the infrastructure, cloud, compute and skills that turn possibility into practical impact,” he said.
Investment in AI infrastructure has become a strategic priority globally as companies race to secure data center capacity, semiconductor access and cloud computing resources needed to support increasingly complex AI workloads. African governments and technology firms are simultaneously pushing to avoid being left behind in the next phase of digital transformation while managing constraints around electricity supply, connectivity and financing.
