Kenya is now home to East and Central Africa’s first GPU-powered Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure, further boosting its position as a regional tech leader.
The new AI facility, developed by Atlancis Technologies
under its Servernah Cloud brand in partnership with Everse Technology and
iXAfrica Data centres, will allow enterprises, startups, researchers, and
public institutions to train and deploy AI models locally, without exporting
sensitive data or relying on offshore cloud systems.
AI and Machine Learning (ML) tasks such as training complex models, processing massive datasets, running large language models, or performing real-time image recognition require immense, simultaneous computational power. GPUs provide this power, making them the workhorse of modern AI.
The Servernah AI Factory, powered by NVIDIA’s high-performance technology, is based on Open Compute Project (OCP) standards and is designed to deliver hyperscale computing power while being suited to Africa’s unique conditions on energy efficiency and reliable connectivity.
“This is more than HPCs and GPUs; it’s the heart of Africa’s AI revolution,” said Daniel Njuguna, CEO of Atlancis Technologies. We are proving that world-class innovation can be designed, built, and powered from within Africa,” said Michael Michie, co-founder and CEO of Everse Technology.
“AI-ready infrastructure is the first step in taking control of our intelligent future. Through these partnerships, we will see adoption scale rapidly across sectors, and we’ll do so with our data and talent remaining in-country.”
Globally, over 70% of AI compute capacity is concentrated in North America, another 20% in Europe, leaving Africa with a fraction of the resources necessary to develop and deploy advanced AI systems.
Ambassador Philip Thigo, Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology, says this asymmetry defines who trains the most powerful models and who sets the rules for the future of intelligence.
“Across the world, Artificial Intelligence is reshaping economies and governance, yet its benefits remain unevenly distributed,” said Ambassador Thigo.
“This milestone represents a shift from dependency to design, where Africa begins to compute its own intelligence. No country and no continent should outsource its intelligence. The future must be built where the people are.”
Thigo said under President William Ruto, Kenya has been positioning itself as Africa’s hub for sovereign AI infrastructure, aligning compute, data, and governance to the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
He noted that this launch advances Kenya’s vision for an AI Stack for Sovereign Development, spanning data, compute, talent, use cases, and governance.
“By investing in sovereign digital infrastructure, we ensure that the benefits of AI serve public good responsibly, inclusively, and sustainably,” Ambassador Thigo added.
The infrastructure is hosted at iXAfrica’s NBOX1 campus, East Africa’s first hyperscale, carrier-neutral data centre designed for AI workloads.
With power densities of up to 50kW per rack and 99.999% uptime, the facility draws from Kenya’s largely renewable energy grid, ensuring a green and resilient compute backbone.
“At iXAfrica, we see this deployment as a defining step in Africa’s AI story,” said Snehar Shah, CEO of iXAfrica. “This is how we build the foundation for Africa’s intelligent future — locally powered and globally competitive.”
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