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Africa Wants AI Sovereignty. Big Tech Holds the Keys.

Africa has about 18% of the world's people and less than 1% of its data centre capacity. A look at who supplies what, and what control really means.

Founder and Editor
2 min read
Illustration for Rest of World's report on Africa's AI sovereignty
Image: Rest of World

[ The short version ]

  1. 01South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt have drafted AI strategies that name dependence on Western tech as a risk.
  2. 02Africa has about 18% of the world's population but less than 1% of global data centre capacity, per the World Economic Forum.
  3. 03Experts say sovereignty means meaningful control over data and procurement, not total independence.

Rest of World reported in May that Africa's largest tech economies want control over their AI future, but the infrastructure, funding and expertise they need still come largely from US companies.

Who supplies what

  • Nvidia: chips. It partnered with Cassava on Africa's first AI factory in South Africa.
  • Oracle: cloud. It is working with iXAfrica on Kenya's first public cloud region.
  • Microsoft: data centre capacity. Its $1 billion data centre with G42 in Kenya has stalled over computing purchase commitments.
  • Google: cloud, for several open-source African AI initiatives.
  • Meta: grants to some open-source African AI initiatives.
<1%
Of global data centre capacity is in Africa, which has about 18% of the world's peopleWorld Economic Forum, via Rest of World

What sovereignty can mean

Rachel Adams of the Global Center on AI Governance told Rest of World that digital sovereignty cannot mean total independence from global AI supply chains. The goal, in the Tony Blair Institute's framing, is meaningful control: over data, over procurement and over vendor lock-in.

Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia rejected US-linked health data-sharing agreements, an example of exercising control without leaving the global market.

Sources and notes
  • #AI
  • #Datacentres
  • #Africa
  • #BigTech

[ Written by ]

Founder and Editor

Victor Oluwaleye founded TheStak to explain what tech, AI and marketing actually change for the people running businesses, in Africa and beyond. A computer scientist by training and a marketer by trade, Victor has spent more than a decade leading marketing teams and building digital systems inside organisations, and runs Induuce Consultants, a growth and digital transformation agency in Lagos. More about Victor

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