Designed to guarantee data sovereignty at the African level, the invention will enable hundreds of start-ups and research centres across the continent to develop their AI solutions under optimal conditions.
The Cameroonian IT services company, ST Digital, announces the launch of the first sovereign AI hosting offering in Central and West Africa. Available in Cameroun and Côte d'Ivoire from the second quarter of 2025, GPU Cloud Africa presents itself as a sovereign AI server hosting offering (artificial intelligence) equipped with NVIDIA GPU processors. The innovation makes available to African businesses and institutions an "unrivalled computing capacity for artificial intelligence applications", according to ST Digital.
In addition to its storage capabilities, the hosting platform developed primarily addresses a digital sovereignty challenge. Indeed, most technologies currently available on the continent are imported. ST Digital has thus designed a local solution adapted to local needs, while guaranteeing an infrastructure capable of supporting the computational workloads required for artificial intelligence. "We are proud to offer a solution that combines performance, security, and data sovereignty. GPU CLOUD AFRICA provides African innovators with the resources needed to develop their own AI solutions, without relying on foreign infrastructures," states the Group Chief Executive Officer of ST Digital, Anthony SAME.
The objective of this innovation is to enable hundreds of African start-ups and research centers to develop their AI solutions under optimal conditions. GPU CLOUD AFRICA is presented as guaranteeing a secure and sovereign environment for African data, pricing adapted to local realities, and proximity technical support to assist developers. In essence, the initiative aims to give a boost to the development of AI innovation in Africa. "Deploying servers with NVIDIA Tesla M10 GPU units in Douala and Abidjan is an essential step toward a digitally sovereign Africa. Today, 95% of African AI talent is forced to use infrastructures and solutions with limited capabilities. For example, while a G7 start-up can fine-tune its AI model in 30 minutes, our innovators must wait up to six days. This situation is no longer acceptable, especially at a time when AI is the engine of global economic transformation", states Anthony SAME.
A pioneer in Cloud and Datacenter solutions in Africa, ST Digital has expertise in training, integration, and digital transformation consulting. Its vision is built around five pillars: transforming customer relationships, improving operational processes, digitalizing the business model, next-generation digital infrastructures (CLOUD). In 2024, ST Digital launched the first 100% Cameroonian cloud. This solution addresses the challenges of costs that are often prohibitive for SMEs and startups.