Mzansi Mind, a local enterprise AI platform owned by Solcon Capital, has chosen HPE servers and network switches to run its Siya language model, HPE announced.
The platform supports all official South African languages. According to HPE, it is built to help companies use AI in the languages their staff and customers speak, while keeping data inside the country.
“Our ambition is to build an Agentic AI ecosystem that truly understands South Africa, from our languages and regulatory environment to the unique requirements of local organizations. Most importantly, it must be sovereign,” said Pramod Venkatesh, CEO Director for the Mzansi Mind Sovereign AI project at Solcon Capital.
Venkatesh said HPE gives the project the base it needs to offer these services safely and at a large scale.
The system pairs the Siya model with a set of AI agents. HPE said these agents can reason, use software tools and carry out tasks with many steps inside company work systems.
The platform has ready-made agents for financial research and compliance, legal work, human resources and customer service. It also has agents that help company bosses plan and make decisions.
The hardware is made up of HPE ProLiant DL380a Gen12 servers fitted with NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell graphics chips. The equipment is housed at an Equinix data centre in Johannesburg.
Mzansi Mind has also installed HPE Juniper QFX5120 switches. HPE said these link the servers, storage and AI computers at high speed.
“By combining HPE’s AI-optimized infrastructure with NVIDIA accelerated computing, MzMind has a scalable foundation to deliver multilingual enterprise AI agents,” said Ahmad Alkhallafi, HPE vice president and managing director for the UAE and Africa.
Sandile Dube, managing director of Equinix South Africa, said spending on digital infrastructure is helping to create new chances for skills and economic growth in Johannesburg and across the country.
Dube said hosting the AI system at the Equinix site gives Mzansi Mind the connections and backup it needs to grow as demand rises.
The equipment was supplied by Datacentrix, an HPE Platinum partner. Datacentrix worked with Solcon Capital from the planning stage up to getting ready for launch.
The company said it compared several technology options before it recommended HPE. It based the choice on HPE’s AI products, its services and its ability to support future growth.
“Our role was to translate Mzansi Mind’s agentic AI vision into a scalable, enterprise-ready solution,” said Ahmed Mahomed, Group CEO of Datacentrix.
The deal also includes HPE Tech Care Service, which gives ongoing support for the equipment. HPE said the system can grow so that Mzansi Mind can build new AI agents faster and at lower cost.
Mzansi Mind is starting in South Africa. According to HPE, the platform is designed to later expand to other African markets, languages and sets of rules.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Lifestyle & Tech. Image: Lifestyle & Tech. 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.