Cassava Technologies, the company controlled by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, is going ahead with its $720 million plan to build AI data centres across Africa. This follows the resignation of Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang on 12 November, Billionaires.Africa reported.
Cassava is Nvidia’s biggest partner in Africa. Its first AI factory, near Cape Town, already runs 3,000 Nvidia graphics processors.
Huang was the Nvidia executive who backed the deal with Cassava. He left his posts as president, chief executive and board member with immediate effect, ending 33 years at the chipmaker.
Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, is now interim chief executive while the board looks for a permanent replacement. The board said it expects the company’s operations, customer commitments and product plans to carry on without a break.
Nvidia is both a supplier and a shareholder in Cassava. It sells the processors that power Cassava’s AI factories and owns a stake in the company. Google is also a shareholder.
According to the report, Cassava is the first Nvidia Cloud Partner with its head office in Africa.
Cassava announced the plan in March 2025. The goal was to put 12,000 Nvidia GPUs to work across the continent.
In November 2025, Masiyiwa said Cassava had already bought all 12,000 chips and flown them in. More sites are planned in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco over the next few years.
Huang and Masiyiwa promoted the project together. When Masiyiwa launched Cassava’s GPU rental service in Johannesburg in November 2025, he said Africa had once been told it had only 80 Nvidia GPUs.
Africa still holds less than 0.1% of the world’s GPUs, the report said.
Other companies are also building on Nvidia hardware in Africa. South African technology group Altron said its Nvidia-powered facility went live in October.
In Egypt, Cassava is working with Vodacom Group and Elsewedy Electric on an AI data centre. Vodacom is now looking for partners to build similar sites in South Africa and Kenya.
The leadership change came after two weeks of turmoil at Nvidia. The company lost about $600 billion in market value during that time.
Nvidia’s board had opened an inquiry into Huang’s conduct after media reports about his private life. There were also separate reports that he had been targeted by an alleged foreign intelligence operation.
Masiyiwa made his fortune with Econet Wireless, the mobile operator he started in Zimbabwe in the 1990s. He first fought the government in court for five years to get a licence.
He later split Cassava from the Econet group and made AI the centre of its plans. Cassava also runs the Liquid Intelligent Technologies fibre network and the Africa Data Centres business.
Forbes ranks Masiyiwa as Zimbabwe’s richest person. He lives in London and chairs both Econet and Cassava.
Kress will lead her first earnings call as interim chief executive when Nvidia reports its third quarter results on 17 November.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Billionaires.Africa. Image: Billionaires.Africa. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.