Nvidia, the world’s second-largest company by market capitalisation, is increasing partnerships with universities and innovation hubs across the continent. The American giant in chip design, valued at $3.536trn on the New York Stock Exchange, aims to ensure that future African engineers and entrepreneurs become lifelong users of its products.

A recent example is the establishment in September of an artificial intelligence (AI) centre in Tunisia, located in Novation City, the technology park in Sousse dedicated to mechanics and electronics.

The goal is to train around 1,000 developers in a year, explains Anas Rochdi, director of innovation at Novation City. This represents 1% of the African developers Nvidia aims to familiarise with its technologies over the next three years through its Deep Learning Institute (DLI).

Convincing professionals and governments first

Similar initiatives in Kenya and Nigeria illustrate the company’s ambition to weave its presence across Africa. Founded and led by Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia has also partnered with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. This partnership aims to provide governments and organisations in 10 countries – Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia and Togo – with support and technological training.

Novation City members will be able to practise on Nvidia DGX servers and their management platform. These tools transform a data centre into an “AI factory”, says the California-based company, which reported $61bn in revenue for 2023.

Beyond making AI more accessible, the company aims to turn African students and start-ups into loyal customers.

“Africa is a rapidly growing emerging market with a significant pool of young talent skilled in technology. At the same time, the continent presents unique opportunities and challenges that AI can help address,” said Susan Marshall, senior director of developer relations at Nvidia.

“We want to engage with African start-ups through Nvidia Inception, a free global programme designed to support start-ups and developers.”

Marshall views West and North Africa as target regions, citing the rising number of AI-related activities and the increasing influx of AI developers into the job market.

Teraco and Ooredoo as clients to compete with Huawei

Competition with Chinese rivals is fierce as companies vie for position in the artificial intelligence race. According to the 2023 Government AI Readiness Index published by Oxford Insights, Mauritius, the best-prepared African country for adopting AI, ranks only 61st.

However, Nvidia is already making inroads. A few months ago, Teraco, a major colocation data centre provider in South Africa, opted for Nvidia DGX Systems for its infrastructure. The Qatari telecommunications company Ooredoo, active in Algeria and Tunisia, has also chosen Nvidia to supply graphics processors for its data centres in the Middle East and North Africa.

In September, United Bank for Africa turned to the Chinese firm Huawei for a $3m contract for the virtual storage of 200 petabytes of data and cloud solutions. This marked a significant shift, as the Nigerian banking sector had previously been a stronghold for IBM. During the Gitex Africa technology fair in Morocco last spring, Huawei unveiled a series of AI-driven data storage innovations aimed at attracting African clients.

Nvidia is keen to ensure it does not cede the continent to its competitor. The company has declined to disclose its revenue and investments in Africa and has refrained from commenting on its competition with Huawei in this sector. However, earlier this year, the multinational identified the Chinese group as its main competitor, particularly regarding AI-related equipment.