Germany collaborates with Nvidia to establish its own AI infrastructure, much like Cassava's AI manufacturing facility.
Bold, straightforward take on Europe and Africa's AI strategies:
Who doesn't know about the hubbub surrounding Africa's "AI factory" by Cassava Technologies? Well, Germany doesn't want to miss the AI bandwagon, and they're making their move with a European industrial AI cloud.
Deutsche Telekom, the German equivalent of rolling Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Econet Wireless into one company, is partnering with tech giant, Nvidia, to create this European cloud. Set to launch in 2026, it's designed exclusively for industrial heavyweights like Volkswagen, Bosch, and Siemens.
The goal? To keep European industrial data, currently shipped overseas to AWS or Microsoft Azure, closer to home, ensuring security, efficiency, and a sense of local pride for the project being labeled "made in Germany, for Germany."
Nvidia is stepping up by supplying 10,000 state-of-the-art chips for the cloud. With each high-end AI chip costing around $30,000 - $40,000, we're looking at a substantial investment, surpassing $300 million before even considering infrastructure, power, and software costs. This is no small potatoes project.
Dubbed "sovereign AI solutions," this European cloud aims to reduce dependence on American or Chinese infrastructure in the face of uncertain global political situations.
Does this sound familiar? It should, because Cassava Technologies is aiming for similar results in Africa, albeit with a slightly different focus.
Instead of targeting industrial powerhouses, Cassava aims to equip African startups and researchers with proper AI infrastructure, battling the latency issues, data sovereignty concerns, and prohibitive cloud bills that crash many startups. With African projects predominantly hosted on overseas clouds, Cassava envisions regional AI hubs for developers, healthcare researchers, fintechs, and even agri-tech startups to train models locally. It's all about putting AI in the hands of the people, not just the factories.
So, how do these initiatives differ? The European project revolves around industrial AI for manufacturing, emphasizing high performance and centralization. Conversely, Cassava's ambitions are much broader, creating distributed AI factories for everyone, from fintech to farmers. But at their core, they share a common dream—owning their data, running models locally, and breaking the dependence on foreign clouds, whether you're in Berlin or Bulawayo.
With Germany leading the charge on infrastructure, cash, and policy, it's a strong start, but whether Cassava can deliver remains to be seen. But hey, you can't fault them for aiming high.
The European industrial AI cloud, a substantial investment spearheaded by Germany and Nvidia, is leveraging artificial-intelligence technology to provide high-performance solutions for industrial giants like Volkswagen, Bosch, and Siemens, aiming for local data security and sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Cassava Technologies, Africa's AI "factory," focuses on providing fair access to AI infrastructure for African startups, researchers, and various sectors such as fintech, healthcare, and agriculture, with a vision to train models locally and reduce dependence on foreign cloud services, following a similar dream as the European project but with a more detailed focus on distribution and inclusion.
