The global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, projected to generate $15,7-trillion in economic value, marks one of the most profound shifts of our time.
By President Ntuli, MD of HPE South Africa
Yet, nearly 70% of these gains are expected to accrue to China and North America, threatening to deepen global inequalities and leave much of the world on the periphery of technological progress.
For Africa, this is not a moment to merely catch up, it is a call to lead. Building a sovereign AI ecosystem, grounded in resilient infrastructure, expansive data assets, cutting-edge tools, and homegrown talent, is no longer aspirational. It is essential.
Africa holds a unique advantage. By 2050, more than one in four people on the planet will be African, forming a powerful workforce that has the potential to drive AI adoption at scale.
But for African countries to unlock this potential they need the ability to create artificial intelligence using their own infrastructure, data, workforce, and business networks. This is what we refer to as sovereign AI. And it begins with data sovereignty, a priority already embedded in the African Union’s (AU) AI strategy.
As the AU’s Development Agency points out, Africa’s rich resources and growing talent base demand deliberate action to secure data ownership and control. To ensure our data fuels local innovation and remains a national asset, we must retain the rights to govern it.
The question now is not whether Africa should pursue sovereign AI – but how we begin laying its foundations.
Providing direction in the form of policy
The road to sovereign AI begins with robust national policy, which is a big part of the reason why we are seeing many African governments actively working to integrate AI into national strategies. Clear, forward-looking guidelines for AI deployment are not only the foundation of responsible and ethical innovation, they are essential for ensuring compliance with data protection regulations and for empowering organisations to confidently build and deploy AI solutions.
This is not the sole responsibility of governments. The private sector, particularly technology companies with deep expertise in the AI ecosystem, must play a pivotal role in shaping and supporting these frameworks. From data handling and storage to privacy, transparency, and cybersecurity, the tech industry has both the insight and the obligation to help ensure that AI policies are not only robust but also actionable.
Developing an AI-ready workforce
To translate sovereign AI ambitions into reality, Africa must urgently invest in cultivating a robust, future-ready workforce. The continent’s current AI talent gap is already impacting business outcomes, with many organisations struggling to find the skills needed to successfully pilot and implement new AI initiatives Bridging this divide will require coordinated, long-term investment in education, training, and professional development.
One promising approach is the establishment of AI hubs; centres of excellence where governments, academia, and industry can collaborate to accelerate skills development. These hubs can serve as catalysts for innovation, offering access to global advisory services, technical mentorship, and hands-on training.
By nurturing a pipeline of homegrown researchers, data scientists, and engineers, Africa can not only meet its domestic AI needs but also position itself as a contributor to the global AI economy.
Implementing an ‘AI factory’ approach to infrastructure
While talent is the engine of AI transformation, infrastructure is its foundation. Across Africa, infrastructure gaps remain one of the most significant barriers to achieving sovereign AI. From accelerated compute and storage to networking, power, and cooling, the physical and digital backbone required to support AI workloads must be both robust and resilient.
A sovereign AI infrastructure goes beyond raw compute power. It must also embed compliance layers, secure and isolated environments, and trusted supply chains to ensure data integrity and national security. As governments seek to harness AI without compromising sovereignty or trust, one option is to turn to the concept of the “AI factory”; a strategic blueprint for designing, building, and operating AI workflows at scale.
Countries across the world are increasingly embracing a sovereign AI strategy by building domestic “AI factories”, national computing platforms or networks of AI hubs powered by local data and tailored to national priorities. Denmark, for example, launched a supercomputer funded by its pharmaceutical success to drive biotech and AI innovation. Italy, Sweden, the UAE, and India have also developed similar initiatives, aiming to embed cultural identity and strategic autonomy into AI development.
AI factories can serve both public and private sector needs, enabling organisations to access the compute power necessary for training and deploying advanced AI models.
As part of this evolution, integrated solutions are emerging that simplify the deployment of AI-ready data centres. These offerings provide composable architectures and turnkey private cloud platforms, and are designed to remove the complexity of assembling a full AI tech stack, helping sovereign entities and enterprises alike accelerate their AI journeys with greater confidence and control.
Africa stands at a pivotal crossroads. By aligning policy, talent, and infrastructure, the continent can shape a sovereign AI future that reflects its values, serves its people, and drives inclusive growth. This is not merely a technological imperative, it is a strategic one.