Necessary, Not Sufficient: Unblocking Investment Across Africa’s AI Stack

Why this conversation

Capital for AI is Really Thin Beyond Compute Infrastructure

Accendo’s Capital Flows Map traces USD 42.8 billion of committed AI capital across 159 transactions in emerging markets since January 2023. 94% of it went into compute infrastructure. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 30 committed transactions above the infrastructure layer, spread across 23 countries, add up to only about USD 110 million.

Data centers are being built. The companies, data and skills that would use them are funded at a fraction of that scale. This panel asks what blocks investment above the infrastructure layer and who can unblock it.

The panel

Builders and Investors

Infrastructure

Snehar Shah

CEO, iXAfrica

Private venture capital

Johan Bosini

Partner, Quona Capital

Public and blended capital

Nicholas (Nick) Williams

Manager, ICT Operations Division, African Development Bank

Moderator

Prateek Shrivastava

Managing Partner, Accendo Associates

What you will take away

Five Points From the Discussion

• Compute is necessary and not sufficient. Data center capacity stays idle unless there are companies, local data and demand to use it.
• Capital above infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa is thin. About USD 110 million has gone into the layers above compute since January 2023, a small amount next to what has been committed to data centers.
• The missing middle has returned in AI. Across five emerging-market regions since January 2023, the map records only 12 growth-equity or later-stage transactions above the infrastructure layer.
• Local data behaves like infrastructure, and almost nobody funds it. USD 79 million across 11 data foundation transactions worldwide, six of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Demand creation is the other half of every compute deal. Public-sector demand, skills and local data decide whether capacity gets used.

Figures: Accendo Capital Flows Map, committed transactions, January 2023 to July 2026.

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