Google Unveils Major AI Investment Drive Across Africa
Google has announced a sweeping wave of support to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) innovation across Africa, including $37 million in cumulative funding and the launch of a first-of-its-kind AI Community Centre in Accra, Ghana.
The funding package includes new and previously unannounced investments in research, talent development, digital skills, and infrastructure aimed at enabling Africans to shape and lead the future of AI.
Food Systems, Language Tech, and Startups
A centrepiece of the announcement is the AI Collaborative for Food Security, a $25 million initiative by Google.org. The collaborative brings together researchers and nonprofits to co-develop AI tools that tackle hunger, improve crop resilience, and provide guidance to smallholder farmers across Africa. The goal is to strengthen food systems and make them more resilient amid growing climate and economic challenges.
To support Africa’s linguistic diversity, Google is investing $3 million in the Masakhane Research Foundation, an open research collective advancing natural language processing tools in over 40 African languages. This funding will help build quality datasets, machine translation systems, and speech tools that improve digital accessibility for millions.
Google is also launching a catalytic funding initiative to back over 100 early-stage AI startups tackling real-world problems in healthcare, agriculture, education, and other key sectors. These startups will gain access to venture capital, mentorship, technical expertise, and tools to responsibly scale their solutions.
AI Community Centre in Ghana
One of the most notable developments is the opening of the AI Community Centre in Accra, designed as a space for learning, experimentation, and collaboration. The Centre will host training sessions, workshops, and community events, structured around four key pillars: AI literacy, community technology, social impact, and arts and culture.
“Our goal is to create a space where developers, students, and creators can engage with AI in ways that are rooted in African priorities,” said Yossi Matias, Google’s Vice President of Engineering and Research.
Empowering the Next Generation
Google is also tackling the growing demand for AI and digital skills by offering 100,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships to students in higher learning institutions across Ghana. These fully funded programs will cover AI Essentials, Prompting Essentials, IT Support, Cybersecurity, and Data Analytics.
Beyond Ghana, Google.org is committing $7 million to support AI education in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. This will go toward localized curricula, online safety, and cybersecurity training.
In addition, two new $1 million research grants will go to the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) at the University of Pretoria, and the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute in South Africa. These funds will support MSc and PhD students pursuing foundational AI research and help shape Africa’s position in the global AI community.
“Africa is home to some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today,” said James Manyika, Google’s Senior Vice President for Research, Labs, and Technology & Society. “We are committed to supporting the next wave of innovation through long-term investment, local partnerships, and platforms that help researchers and entrepreneurs build solutions that matter.”
These new initiatives build on Google’s prior work across Africa, including AI-powered maternal health dashboards, wildfire alert systems, and the development of regional language models in Nairobi and Accra.
