Pan-African technology group Cassava Technologies has announced a strategic partnership with South Africa’s STANLIB Infrastructure Investments aimed at accelerating the deployment of AI-ready data centres in South Africa.
Under the agreement, STANLIB’s infrastructure investment arm will work with Cassava’s data centre business unit, Africa Data Centres (ADC), to expand its footprint across Johannesburg and Cape Town. The move comes amid rising demand for digital services, cloud capacity and hyperscale infrastructure in the region.
STANLIB Asset Management is one of South Africa’s leading investment managers, with more than R580 billion in assets under management as of June 2025, offering deep expertise across a wide range of investment disciplines. STANLIB’s infrastructure investment platform invests in a broad range of sustainable assets that contribute to South Africa’s economic development.
“Partnering with STANLIB strengthens our South African operations and validates the robust foundation we’ve built. It provides us the scale required to serve major hyperscalers and enterprises as they rapidly increase their demand for secure, high-capacity connectivity and cloud services across the region.” said Hardy Pemhiwa, President & Group Chief Executive Officer of Cassava Technologies.
“We are proud to partner with Africa Data Centres, a leader in Africa’s digital evolution. Data centres are critical infrastructure for the modern economy, and our investment will strengthen South Africa’s digital backbone, enabling ADC to contribute meaningfully to the country’s growth,” said Andy Louw, Co-Head at STANLIB Infrastructure Investments.
Africa Data Centres currently operates seven state-of-the-art carrier and cloud-neutral data centre facilities across the continent and serves more than 400 enterprise and hyperscale customers.
Through the new partnership, Cassava expects to significantly expand its South African presence by adding AI-optimised data centre campuses in Johannesburg and Cape Town, positioning ADC as a key supplier of secure, high-capacity connectivity, cloud and compute services to large enterprises and hyperscalers.
“It aligns with our desire to be an economic enabler for the South African economy by deploying capital that drives growth while giving institutional investors differentiated access to a unique asset class.” Andy added
Cassava Technologies is a global technology leader of African heritage providing a vertically integrated ecosystem of digital services and infrastructure enabling digital transformation. Headquartered in the UK, Cassava has a presence across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the United States of America.
Through its business units, namely, Cassava AI, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Liquid C2, Africa Data Centres, and Sasai Fintech, the company provides its customers’ products and services in 94 countries. These solutions drive the company’s ambition of establishing itself as a leading global technology company of African heritage
The deal underscores the increasing recognition that data centre infrastructure is a cornerstone of digital economies; by expanding AI-ready capacity, Cassava and STANLIB are targeting both the immediate demand for cloud and connectivity and the longer-term growth of artificial-intelligence applications. The term “AI-ready data centres” therefore acts as a focal point of this strategy.
The deal also mirrors wider global trends: as artificial intelligence investments continue to rise, and cloud workloads grow, data centres are increasingly viewed as strategic infrastructure akin to roads, ports and telecoms networks. South Africa, as the region’s largest economy and a communications hub, is a logical location for expansion of such facilities.
Africa Data Centres owns and operates Africa’s largest network of interconnected, carrier and cloud-neutral data centre facilities. Bringing international experts to the pan-African market, Africa Data Centres is a trusted partner for rapid and secure data centre services and interconnections across Africa.
Strategically located in South, East and West Africa our world-class data centre facilities provide a home for all business-critical data for Africa’s small, medium and large enterprises and global hyperscale customers.
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