In line with Africa’s Mattei Plan, AI Hub for Sustainable Development and Cineca announced 1.5 million graphic processing unit (GPU) hours to 130 innovators across the continent.
Nairobi, Kenya | February 10, 2026: Nairobi AI Forum 2026 has announced that it will make computing access available to 130 innovators across Africa. This will focus on addressing pressing challenges at the intersection of climate resilience, voice AI deployment in local languages, and food security. Ahead of the Italy-Africa Summit in Ethiopia and the AI Impact Summit in India, within the framework of Africa’s Mattei Plan, this support will enable private companies and start-ups across Africa, many of them youth-led, to develop, deploy and scale green and sovereign AI infrastructure.
Organized by the Governments of Kenya and Italy, the Embassy of Italy in Kenya, the Ministry of Enterprise and Italian Manufacturing, the Ministry of Universities and Research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the forum brought together more than 500 participants, including government officials, private business executives, innovators, builders and financiers from Africa, Europe and the G7. Discussions and efforts focused on building scalable AI infrastructure and investment-ready ecosystems, and strengthening adoption in key sectors such as education, agriculture, and energy.
Italian Minister of Universities and Research, Senator Anna Maria Bernini, said: “Strengthening skills, training and research is a strategic choice to support innovation, technological sovereignty and inclusive progress in Africa. The Nairobi AI Forum highlights how joint efforts in higher education, researcher mobility and knowledge exchange, rooted in the Mattei Plan and the AI Hub, can build a global and sustainable artificial intelligence that leaves no one behind.”
“Our mission to Kenya guarantees the continuation of long-term cooperation and friendship within the Mattei Plan, which is not an abstract vision but a concrete strategy that Italy is implementing on the ground. With Kenya, as with all of Africa, we are building a structured long-term partnership based on the growth of knowledge, innovation and sharing, based on the belief that universities, research and skills are the fundamental drivers of fair and lasting development,” Bernini said.
At the forum, Ambassador Philip Tigo, Special Envoy for Technology of the Republic of Kenya, emphasized that “Kenya and Italy, working with UNDP, are entering a decisive phase of their partnership, evolving beyond traditional aid towards co-creating future economic capabilities. This transition is unfolding as the global economy moves into the Age of Intelligence. The Industrial Age was shaped by energy and manufacturing, the Digital Age was shaped by connectivity and software, and the Intelligence Economy will be defined as:” computing infrastructure, sovereign human resources, shared innovation in models and applications, and the ability to translate research into industrial production. ”
Ambassador Vincenzo del Monaco, Ambassador of Italy to Kenya and Permanent Representative to UNEP and UN-HABITAT, said: “The Italian-Kenyan partnership is entering a new era of intelligence cooperation, from dialogue to delivery. “The Nairobi AI Forum has laid important groundwork, distributing 1.5 million GPU hours at Cineca, providing credits from AWS and Microsoft, and launching flagship initiatives.” The delivery runway established ahead of the Italy-Africa Summit aligns with the roadmap we are moving forward together with the upcoming India AI Impact Summit. ”
The Nairobi AI Forum marks an important milestone since June 2025 when the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Senator Adolfo Urso, launched the AI Hub for Sustainable Development in Rome. Speaking from Rome, Senator Adolfo Urso said: “The Nairobi AI Forum will give a decisive boost to industrial innovation in Africa, directly reinforcing the objectives of the Mattei Plan through strategic partnerships and operating agreements with Kenyan AI Hub innovators. The work undertaken in Rome on June 20, 2025 to mark the launch of the Hub is increasingly translating into concrete results, including public-private partnerships with the Italian Space Agency, the Kenyan Space Agency and the Ministry of Kenya.” Agriculture, Microsoft, NASA Harvest and UNDP are supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to create tangible industrial effects, representing Italy’s solid strategic response to global innovation challenges. ”
Mr. Stalon, UNDP Resident Representative in Kenya, and Keezom Godup Massary, Director of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, emphasized UNDP’s critical role in reimagining and realizing concrete private sector-led AI partnerships that create new jobs and improve the lives of people in local communities. UNDP Kenya partnered with the private sector to create 400 jobs for people with disabilities, demonstrating a call to action on what AI-powered partnerships can deliver at scale.
The AI Hub is a collaborative platform endorsed by the G7 Leaders and supported by the Ministry of Enterprise and the Italian Ministry of Manufacturing, with continental leadership in the Co-Design and Executive Steering Group, based on Senator Urso’s clarion call to rethink industrial value chains. As a multilateral platform that responds to country demands, UNDP is unlocking global AI partnerships, financing, and foundational capacity to empower Africa’s ecosystem. This includes driving private sector innovation, fit-for-purpose AI infrastructure, and inclusive growth in line with the Italia-Africa Mattei Plan and the African Union AI Strategy, and serving as an accelerator for the SDGs in line with the UNDP Strategic Plan.
Forum participants considered how tailored public-private partnerships and innovative financing can transform AI aspirations into an inclusive ecosystem that creates jobs, increases productivity, and fosters sustainable growth. Ahead of the Italy-Africa Summit and the AI Impact Summit, this conference will serve as a runway for AI dissemination, creating shared, trusted rails to transform AI capabilities into real-world, large-scale adoption.
One of the key takeaways from the forum is: Scaling AI is not about agencies always “doing AI,” but rather about AI leadership and agencies better accomplishing their core missions with AI that is seamlessly integrated into workflows, interfaces, and decision-making and delivers meaningful outcomes. At the Nairobi AI Forum, Qhala’s Shikoh Gitau, who is leading the curation of Africa Village at the AI Impact Summit, highlighted how this vision is closely aligned with the focus on impact and AI dissemination infrastructure being advanced at the upcoming India AI Impact Summit. Partners in Kenya, Italy, and India are beginning to work together to unlock AI infrastructure through use cases that scale adoption and improve outcomes for people and planet.
High-level engagement by Kenya’s Minister of Information, Communications and Digital Economy, His Excellency William Kabogo Gitau, and stakeholders from the European Union, India and the United States signaled a decisive shift towards partnership with the private sector. This was evident in discussions led by AI Hub’s African infrastructure builders and innovators, including Horus Labs, Deep Leaf, Crane AI, and AfCEN.
The forum took place against the backdrop of strengthening ties between Africa and Europe, as Italy advances its Mattei Plan for Africa. The Matei Plan establishes a long-term framework for cooperation across agriculture, health, education, water, energy and infrastructure, rooted in partnership and mutual value creation. Within this framework, the Nairobi AI Forum positioned AI as a powerful cross-cutting enabler that enhances delivery, productivity and sustainability by aligning investments with national priorities to achieve development goals.
The forum culminated with several impact-focused announcements to accelerate AI infrastructure, mobilize capital, and enable innovators to scale their solutions across the continent.
Launch of co-design of the AI 10 Billion Initiative: UNDP and AI Hub, in collaboration with the African Development Bank and private sector partners, have begun co-designing this bold initiative to create up to 45 million jobs across Africa by 2035 through targeted investments in AI infrastructure and adoption. The initiative is expected to mobilize up to US$10 billion in phased commitments to foster AI entrepreneurship (from proof of concept to equity/debt financing), regional data embassies, core data infrastructure, and technical support for AI policies and hubs on the continent. This investment call stems directly from the African Development Bank’s report, “Productivity Pathways to Labor Efficiency, Economic Growth, and Inclusive Transformation,” which demonstrates the path to leveraging AI as a key driver of productivity, employment, and inclusive growth.
In making the announcement, Emanuele Spampinato, CEO of Harmonic Innovation Group, said: “At Harmonic Innovation Group, we believe that innovation must be ethical, inclusive, sustainable and culturally rooted. Inspired by a humanitarian approach that combines technology and sustainability, every element of the Harmonic Africa Startup Acceleration Program (H-ASAP) embodies the following values: from respecting dignity and privacy to empowering women and youth, from building green infrastructure to strengthening Africa’s rich cultural heritage and linguistic diversity.
Launch of Harmonic Africa Startup Acceleration Program: Harmonic Innovation Group, in partnership with AI Hub, announced this program that will provide capital, technical support, and market access to high-growth AI startups in Africa, prioritizing deployable solutions in agriculture, health, education, and energy. A partnership agreement has been signed between Harmonic Innovation Group and AI Hub innovators Chestify AI and Kenya’s Africa Compute Fund.
Mustafa Zaidan, CEO of Chestify AI Labs, said, “Our partnership with Harmonic Innovation Group through the AI Hub Acceleration Program further strengthens our deep belief that we are ready to expand our services to rural and community-based clinics that form the backbone of Africa’s healthcare ecosystem.”
Harmonic Innovation Group also announced the activation of the Harmonic Fund’s venture platform with an initial €50 million investment line, the establishment of Africa’s first Italian incubator focused on climate change technology, food system intelligence and digital public infrastructure (DPI), and the launch of the ground-breaking Nairobi-Italy-San Francisco-India Innovation Triangle for scaling beyond the corridor.
Under the leadership of Daniel Mainda, the Nairobi International Financial Center (NIFC) has strengthened its role by supporting capital building, domiciliating investment vehicles, and providing regulatory certainty and transparency, strengthening Nairobi’s position as Africa’s leading technology hub and regional financial capital.
Space-enabled AI collaboration for food security: A new public-private partnership to leverage space-based data and AI to strengthen Kenya’s food security and climate resilience has been announced, with the potential to expand across Africa. Led by the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the Kenya Space Agency, and supported by the Italian Space Agency, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), NASA Harvest, Microsoft, and AI Hub, this initiative will build a trusted national agricultural geospatial data infrastructure, providing a standardized update layer for crop mapping, yield forecasting, and early detection of climate risks that will benefit farmers, insurers, financial institutions, and public authorities. Cybersecurity Readiness Initiative for African AI Startups: Cyber 4.0, in collaboration with AI Hub, has launched a public call to strengthen the cybersecurity readiness of African AI startups. The program champions the principles of secure by design, helps build competencies and capabilities as AI scales in critical areas, and works with the Cisco Cybersecurity Training Center in Nairobi to build talent pipelines through hands-on training.
Going forward, the results of the Nairobi AI Forum will guide continued collaboration between governments, development partners, and the private sector.
