Cassava Technologies was assembled by Econet in 2021 to consolidate the group’s digital infrastructure assets under a single platform. It is privately held and headquartered in London, with operations concentrated in Africa and a stated customer presence in 94 countries. Strive Masiyiwa, who founded Econet in 1993, is executive chairman; Hardy Pemhiwa is president and group chief executive. The group runs five business lines: Liquid Intelligent Technologies (fibre), Africa Data Centres, Liquid C2 (cloud and cyber), Cassava AI, and Sasai Fintech.
Its AI figures, like its data centre figures, span two orders of magnitude and several different stages of commitment. They are separated here by status.
| Asset / claim | Figure | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cape Town AI factory | ~3,000 NVIDIA GPUs | Delivered; first shipment mid-2025. In May 2026 the company said the facility was four to six weeks from full operation; no go-live announcement has followed |
| Johannesburg AI factory | 20 MW target | Planned — company says the data centre space already exists |
| Continental GPU fleet | 12,000–13,000 GPUs | Aspiration — company-stated target over three to four years, across Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco |
| NVIDIA programme | ~US$700–720m | Announced — a multi-year figure; whether it represents Cassava’s spend, NVIDIA’s, or the combined programme is not specified |
| CAIMEx model exchange | — | Live since November 2025 |
| Africa Data Centres estate | 9 certified sites, 6 countries | Operational — company-stated |
The March 2026 announcement described the AI Factory as being deployed in South Africa. Two months later the company’s South Africa chief executive told ITWeb that the Cape Town facility was in its final stages before launch. The gap between the two statements is the reason nothing here is recorded as operational.
Ownership and capital. Shareholders include Econet Group, Google (December 2024), NVIDIA (November 2025, in a round valued above US$150m), the Public Investment Corporation, British International Investment, the IFC, the US Development Finance Corporation, Finnfund, Gateway, Royal Bafokeng Holdings and Afreximbank’s FEDA. NVIDIA is both shareholder and hardware supplier. STANLIB has taken a minority stake in Africa Data Centres’ South African business; the holding company remains wholly owned by Cassava.
Debt sits mainly at Liquid Intelligent Technologies. In February 2026 Liquid secured roughly US$605m — US$410m in new facilities from commercial and development lenders, plus a US$195m injection from Cassava — and repaid its rand term loan and dollar revolving facility. It closed a further US$660m financing in April 2026. A US$620m bond matures in September 2026; Liquid intends to replace it with a US$300m issue, which would materially reduce leverage.
Open and unverified
- Whether the Cape Town AI factory is now fully operational.
- Whether any GPU has been installed outside South Africa.
- Group revenue and the AI unit’s contribution, neither of which Cassava discloses.
- What the US$700m NVIDIA figure covers.
- Whether the September 2026 bond refinancing completes as planned.
Last updated 1 August 2026