For Africa, home to the world’s largest youth population (slated to double to more than 830 million by 2050), the rapidly expanding capabilities of AI present both a significant opportunity and an urgent call to action.
I began a lifelong journey of learning as a young engineering student in Zimbabwe. Through a research project on neural networks, I became aware of AI’s profound potential, and the need for it to benefit everyone.
At Google, we believe that access to AI — which requires not only connectivity and products, but the training to use it — is essential for unlocking opportunities and expanding the innovation capacity of young Africans. AI is how Google delivers on our mission to make information universally accessible and useful, and how we will transform knowledge and learning. With AI, collectively we have the chance to democratize access from the start, ensuring that the digital divide doesn’t become an AI divide, making it helpful for everyone.
Connectivity is unlocking Africa’s digital potential
For decades, Google has supported African internet connectivity, beginning with our 2006 investment in the Seacom cable. In 2021, Google pledged $1 billion over five years to further this mission. We’ve exceeded that commitment early, investing more than $1 billion which has contributed to the development of reliable, resilient, and secure infrastructure essential for Africans to harness the power of AI.
Today marks another milestone in our commitment to Africa’s digital future. Google is announcing four strategic subsea cable connectivity hubs in the north, south, east and west regions of Africa. This investment creates new digital corridors within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world — ultimately deepening international connectivity and resilience, as well as spurring economic growth and opportunity.
This is the latest addition to our Africa Connect infrastructure program. We’re building vital connectivity across the continent, including the Google Cloud region in Johannesburg serving users across the continent, the Equiano cable running along the entire western seaboard of the continent, and Umoja, the first fiber optic route to directly connect Africa with Australia (running through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa).
Our investments to date have enabled 100 million Africans to access the internet for the first time, and the Equiano cable alone is expected to increase real GDP this year in Nigeria, South Africa and Namibia by an estimated $11.1 billion, $5.8 billion and $290 million, respectively. We’ve also made Gemini available on Google Distributed Cloud, so more entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and developers can use our advanced AI models from anywhere with enhanced security, reliability and resilience.
Google’s AI can accelerate youth-led learning and innovation
Enabling Africa’s young people to learn, innovate and lead is critical to Africa’s development and economic growth. That’s why we’re getting advanced AI into the hands of college students (aged 18 or older) in countries across the continent — starting with Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe — by offering them a free one-year subscription to our Google AI Pro plan, available in the coming weeks.
With Deep Research, students can save time with custom research reports, providing in-depth information from hundreds of sites across the web. With expanded access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, students can get help with homework or writing and access the full suite of Pro tools, including Guided Learning in Gemini, a new mode that acts as a learning companion.
By providing students with advanced AI tools for research, problem-solving, coding and content creation, we’re directly empowering them to address challenges and pursue opportunities specific to the continent, thereby contributing to economic growth and societal progress.
Helping to build skills and solutions
Equipping people with AI skills is critical. To date, we’ve trained 7 million Africans and plan to train an additional 3 million students, young people, and teachers by 2030. Google is also bolstering local capacity by providing African universities and research institutions with over $17 million in funding, curriculum, training, compute and access to advanced AI models over the past four years, with an additional $9 million planned for the coming year.
Young people have faced barriers accessing knowledge and information, as well as tools and products in African languages, limiting their ability to benefit from them. Last year, we added 110 new languages to Google Translate, including more than 30 African languages. Building on that, we’re expanding open datasets, evaluations and voice models for more than 40 African languages, with plans to reach more than 50 languages and publish 24 open speech datasets next year.
We’ve seen the power of enabling research and innovation in Africa with the pioneering work of our AI research teams in Kenya and Ghana. Together with local partners, these Google teams are leading cutting-edge research to benefit Africa and the world, such as advanced flood forecasting, Open Buildings data, strengthening crop resilience, and support for farmers. We aim to reach 500 million Africans with our AI-powered innovations that help tackle societal challenges by 2030.
The future of African innovation
AI creates an unprecedented opportunity to benefit everyone, and Google is committed to making that a reality for people, businesses and communities across Africa. Today’s announcements are another example of how Google is continuing to expand connectivity, increase product access and skills across the continent and enabling African-led innovation — and we won’t stop here.
Article originally posted on Google Blog. Written by James Manyika, SVP Research, Labs, Technology & Society
