Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s Cassava joins Vodafone in $1 billion Egypt data-centre and sovereign AI push

The three companies agreed to establish Africa Data Centres Egypt, a joint venture that will develop and operate data-centre infrastructure in the North African country.

The venture is expected to begin with 20 megawatts of capacity during its first three years before potentially expanding to 200MW, according to Egyptian newspaper Ahram Online⁠, which reported the agreements on September 8.

The initial phase could attract up to $200 million in foreign direct investment, while the full development could ultimately require $1 billion.

The companies have not disclosed their respective stakes in the joint venture, the project’s location, its power source or when its first facility will open.

The planned investment is therefore not yet money spent or irrevocably committed. The $1 billion figure represents the partners’ estimate for the project if it reaches its full 200MW capacity.

Egypt’s first sovereign AI data centre

Vodafone and Cassava also announced a separate partnership to develop sovereign artificial-intelligence infrastructure in Egypt.

The partners said they would launch the country’s first data centre dedicated to sovereign AI, giving companies and government organisations local access to Nvidia computing technology and graphics-processing units as a service.

The model would allow customers to use advanced computing capacity without purchasing and managing the underlying hardware themselves.

Keeping the infrastructure in Egypt could also help organisations process sensitive information locally rather than sending it to foreign data centres.

However, sovereign AI does not mean Egypt will own Nvidia’s technology or become independent of imported hardware. It principally describes local control over the infrastructure, computing and data involved.

A value was not disclosed for the separate AI facility, and the companies did not specify how many Nvidia GPUs would be installed.

Masiyiwa expands his African technology network

Cassava Technologies was founded by Masiyiwa and owns businesses spanning fibre connectivity, cloud computing, cybersecurity, financial technology and data centres.

Its Africa Data Centres subsidiary already operates facilities in markets including South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. The Egypt venture would extend the group’s physical data-centre footprint into one of Africa’s largest economies.

Hardy Pemhiwa, Cassava’s president and group chief executive, said Africa currently represents no more than one per cent of the global cloud-computing industry.

For Vodafone, the agreements expand a long-standing investment in Egypt. The company says it has invested more than EGP125 billion in the country over 28 years and plans to invest another EGP20 billion during its 2026/27 financial year.

The data-centre venture could create as many as 200 direct and about 2,000 indirect jobs, according to TechAfrica News⁠.

Egypt is attempting to use its location between Africa, Europe and Asia, its submarine-cable connections and growing energy infrastructure to become a regional centre for cloud and AI services.

The new partnerships indicate that African-founded companies such as Cassava want to help build that infrastructure rather than leave the market entirely to American, Chinese and European technology groups.