- Cassava Technologies and Sand Technologies have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding.
- This MoU will give Sand access to Cassava’s wealth of NVIDIA GPUs for AI training and development.
- This will help build resilience in the AI field across the African continent.
The majority of artificial intelligence platforms are the creation of Western countries. While this is due to their immense wealth and access to technology, it also means that if the West deigns it, those outside of their alliances may lose access to this ground-breaking technology.
As such, countries need to start building their own AI resilience so that if the West decides it no longer wants to share, there are options available. To that end, Cassava Technologies has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sand Technologies to help build AI capabilities in Africa.
Sand Technologies builds AI solutions for the telecommunications, water, energy, healthcare and the insurance sector. As part of the MoU, Sand Technologies will receive access to Cassava’s NVIDIA-powered GPUs to build out AI solutions in Africa and across the world.
“As more businesses across Africa seek to harness the potential of AI, the demand for powerful GPU processing capabilities is increasing. By providing Sand Technologies with access to Cassava’s GPU solutions, we are not only enabling them to develop advanced AI solutions for their clients across industries but also expanding Cassava’s own footprint into these industries. Positioning ourselves as a provider of GPU-as-a-service means we can offer African businesses the cost-effective, scalable processing solutions they need to compete in an AI-driven world,” said Hardy Pemhiwa, President and Group chief executive officer of Cassava Technologies.
This is the second such deal Cassava Technologies has announced this month alone. Recently it stuck a deal with Zindi with the aim of helping Zindi enhance its data science efforts.
Since launching its AI business unit last year, Cassava Technologies has been working hard to make the tech more accessible to African businesses.
Part of that involves establishing what Cassava calls an AI factory. This will give developers the compute power required to create AI solutions right here at home, without relying on platforms based in other nations. This has the benefit of local developers crafting AI platforms that are tailored for a local audience. Moreso, it will likely be more affordable than paying Dollar conversions in local currency.
Indeed this looks to be the goal for Sand Technologies on the back of this MoU.
“Sand Technologies is proud to partner with Cassava in what is set to be a pivotal moment for the advancement of industry-related AI solutions on the African continent. It will enable us to bring the best of Cassava’s GPU processing power to our clients and position us to support their digital transformation journeys,” said Fred Swaniker, Founder and CEO of Sand Technologies.
