Africa’s AI future moves from vision to infrastructure at AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEX KENYA 2026

Global and regional stakeholders explore AI technologies redefining East Africa’s digital landscape – from cloud regions to hyperscale data centres and AI sovereignty frameworks

Nairobi, Kenya – 20 May 2026: From hyperscale data centres to AI sovereignty frameworks, the second day of AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEXKENYA shifted the conversation from strategy to infrastructure, as global and regional players gathered at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) to demonstrate the technologies reshaping East Africa’s AI economy.

Organised by inD, the global organiser of GITEX events, in partnership with the Office of the Special Envoy on Technology of the Republic of Kenya, AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEX KENYA is East Africa’s largest tech and AI event, taking place from 19–21 May 2026. Following an opening day Summit where global tech leaders and pan-African government officials defined a new AI blueprint for regional digital sovereignty, attention turned to the AI EVERYTHING KENYA EXPO, East Africa’s largest cross-sector AI showcase.

Running until tomorrow (21 May), the AI EVERYTHING KENYA EXPO features 280-plus enterprises and startups, including 60 percent first-time exhibitors at a B2B tech event in Kenya, while gathering thousands of tech executives from 75 countries, including 140 expert speakers alongside 100 investors managing US$50 billion in assets under management.

East Africa’s AI and digital infrastructure drive gains greater global visibility

Wednesday’s proceedings began with an exhibition opening and conference inauguration walkthrough, where government officials including Johnson Sakaja, Governor of Nairobi; Eng. John Tanui, Principal Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy; and Hon. Dr. Monica Musenero Masanza, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Uganda, joined H.E. Ambassador Philip Thigo, Special Envoy on Technology for the Republic of Kenya. Thereafter, innovations from East Africa’s most disruptive digital economy enablers illustrated why East Africa is a tech hub on the rise.

Headline global tech ecosystem leaders this week shaping Africa’s AI future include ASUS, Cassava, Cisco, Fortinet, GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation), HP, Odoo, Kaspersky, Mastercard, and TrendAI, while iXAfrica Data Centres, East Africa’s first hyperscale AI-ready data centre, cemented its regional digital ambitions following a landmark partnership with Oracle to host Kenya’s first Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region in Nairobi.

Snehar Shah, CEO of iXAfrica Data Centres, said its collaboration with Oracle cements Kenya’s status as a credible infrastructure location for hyperscale cloud and AI services: “For Kenya and East Africa, this is a strategic shift. Local cloud and data centre infrastructure strengthens data residency, improves resilience, supports lower-latency digital services, and gives enterprises and public sector institutions a stronger platform for innovation.”

Shah added: “At AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEX KENYA, iXAfrica is showcasing the role of AI-ready data centre infrastructure in enabling cloud, sovereign workloads, colocation, interconnection, high-performance compute, and resilient digital services. Our goal is to strengthen partnerships with cloud providers, enterprises, connectivity players, AI companies, and public sector stakeholders who are building the next layer of Africa’s digital economy.” 

Africa’s AI house: moving from tenancy to ownership

The infrastructure and sovereignty agenda extended beyond the exhibition floor, with a high-level panel discussion and innovator showcase hosted by Qhala– the Kenyan digital innovation and transformation company focused on advancing Africa’s digital economy through technology, strategy, research and platform development – in partnership with OpenSociety Foundations, one of the world’s largest philanthropic and grantmaking networks.

This gathering brought together investors, technologists, policymakers, academia, startups and ecosystem builders to examine the essential infrastructure foundations for Africa’s AI future, and the partnerships and investments required to build sovereign, locally grounded and sustainable African AI ecosystems.

While Africa’s AI market is forecast to reach US$16.5billion by 2030 – almost quadrupling from US$4.5 billion in 2025 – the continent currently accounts for less than one percent of global data centre capacity and frontier AI models are predominantly trained on non-African datasets. Moreover, access to affordable compute infrastructure remains inaccessible to most African startups, researchers, and institutions. This reality amplified discussions around Africa’s need to accelerate investment into sovereign AI infrastructure and avoid becoming structurally dependent on external digital ecosystems.

Dr. Shikoh Gitau, Founder and CEO, Qhala, said: “Africa is at a strategic crossroads: it can either remain a dependent consumer of foreign AI or emerge as a sovereign architect of its own digital future. Realising this potential requires a deliberate shift from policy talk to practical investment in the continent’s infrastructure, specifically in compute power, localised data systems, and energy-efficient data centres.”

While discussing the infrastructure, investment, and collaborative frameworks required to build sovereign and locally grounded AI ecosystems, Dr. Gitau stressed that Africa possesses many of the ingredients that will define the next era of AI growth: one of the world’s youngest and fastest-growing digitally connected populations, expanding innovation ecosystems, and rich linguistic and data diversity.

Dr. Gitau added: “By convening key stakeholders to address the infrastructure gap, we move beyond being ‘tenants’ in the global AI economy to becoming owners and producers. The choices made now will determine if Africa leads the next generation of intelligence systems or remains at their periphery. This session marks an important step in advancing coordinated action, deepening collaboration, and accelerating Africa’s path toward AI sovereignty and infrastructure ownership.”

East Africa’s technology ecosystem enters a higher-value era

Meanwhile, Redington, the US$11.8 billion technology ecosystem orchestrator, presented its latest AI distribution solutions for industries across Africa. Serkan Çelik, Chief Executive Officer for Turkey, Africa, Egypt, and the CIS region at Redington Group, said across East Africa, the channel ecosystem is evolving beyond traditional hardware distribution.

“Market fragmentation is driving the need for stronger local expertise and specialised partnerships, while cloud adoption and direct-to-customer models are pushing partners higher up the value chain,” said Çelik. “Today, real value creation is coming from advisory, integration, cybersecurity, managed services, and long-term customer lifecycle support rather than transactional resale alone.”

Nothing launches full product range in Kenya

AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEX KENYA 2026 was also the preferred platform for major regional launches, spearheaded today by the launch of Nothing, the world’s fastest growing smartphone and consumer audio brand. Founded in London, UK, Nothing is the only new smartphone brand to emerge in the last decade and will now be available across Kenya in partnership with Mitsumi Distribution.

“We are thrilled to launch the full Nothing product range in Kenya with Mitsumi as our distribution partner at AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEX KENYA – phones, earphones, IoT, the entire ecosystem – available from today,” said Rishi Kishor Gupta, Regional Director for Nothing in the Middle East and Africa. “Kenya is one of the most important markets in East Africa: it has a young, dynamic population that embraces change and adopts new technology fast. We are starting here and expanding across East Africa – Uganda, Rwanda, and beyond, with West Africa, including Nigeria, to follow. This is just the beginning.”

AI EVERYTHING KENYA X GITEX KENYA concludes on Thursday with Day 2 of the AI EVERYTHING KENYA EXPO at KICC – featuring regional-first exhibits, the Venture Scaling Forum, and the Supernova Challenge – East Africa’s biggest pitch competition – where the region’s fastest-rising entrepreneurs and startups display their innovations and meet global investors, venture capitalists, and tech leaders.