To Grow Africa’s AI Economy, Microsoft Invests $300 Million In Datacenters

Microsoft will invest $290 million over the next two years in South Africa on AI and cloud infrastructure, vice chair and president Brad Smith announced. At an event with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Johannesburg Thursday, Smith said the investment will help the country’s ambition to become a globally competitive AI economy.It has built massive datacenters in the past three years in Johannesburg and Cape Town, a $1.1 billion investment. Microsoft is also paying for the certification process for 50,000 young South Africans so they can get qualifications for their digital skills studies. Smith says this is part of the plan to provide education to Africa’s youngsters, then provide them with certification of having learned those skills to “help” them get a job.The high-demand skills include AI, data science, cybersecurity analysis and cloud solution architecture. This is even more important, he stresses. These are precisely the certificates and skills that win people jobs.We're in effect paying for people so they can get the training and take the certification exams, Smith told me. With a Microsoft certificate for something like cloud architecture or cyber security or AI, you're going to be able to get a job. With its endemic poverty, paying for education is a problem for millions of youngsters. But not everybody can afford to even take the exam to get that certificate, says Smith.More on Microsoft’s AI Datacenter and education efforts in AfricaUPCOMING INTERVIEW ON THE (A)BSOLUTELY (I)NCREDIBLE PODCASTI’m expanding the (A)bsolutely (I)ncredible Podcast to include interviews with thought leaders who are passionately working on revolutionary transformation, powered by AI.On the inaugural episode, I welcomed Theodora Lau, the Founder of Unconventional Ventures, and author of a the new book being released by Palgrave Macmillan.The complete interview will be posted soon on the (A)bsolutely (I)ncredible podcast.Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence: Navigating the Realities of AI in Financial Services. Theodora has been recognized as one American Banker’s Top 20 most influential women in Fintech, and the host of the amazing One Vision Podcast.Click Here To Buy Theodora’s Book, Banking On (Artificial) IntelligenceAs an author of multiple books on the future of finance this should be an interesting and insightful interview thats available to all our Neural News Network subscribers.If you would like your executive, brand, or product featured on the all new (A)bsolutely (I)ncredible Podcast please message Bruce Burke directly for additional information.Thats all for today, but AI is moving fast - subscribe and follow for more Neural News. Get full access to Neural News Network at remunerationlabs.substack.com/subscribe