Altron announced today the successful deployment of South Africa’s first operational artificial intelligence factory, powered by Nvidia AI infrastructure, including Nvidia-accelerated computing and Nvidia AI enterprise software. This platform delivers comprehensive AI infrastructure, tools, training and support while maintaining data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. The platform is currently live with five launch customers, which include Dataviue, Lelapa AI and MathU.
Learn more about Altron’s AI Factory
Altron Group chief technology officer Dr Bongani Andy Mabaso explained: “As South Africa’s original technology brand, we want to be the enabler for businesses seeking to harness AI capabilities, keeping our customers at the heart of our ecosystem. Our launch customers enable our goal for this platform to become a launchpad to support their vision and speed up AI development and the delivery of services to the market, solving challenges in ways only South African companies can.”
Data sovereignty meets world-class AI infrastructure
Altron’s AI Factory ensures sensitive information remains within South African jurisdiction, protected by local laws. This addresses critical data sovereignty concerns for enterprises navigating global AI adoption through comprehensive infrastructure and services.
Di Buijs, head of channel and public sector at Teraco, said: “We are proud to host Altron’s AI Factory – the deployment, within an Nvidia AI-ready data centre at Teraco, complements our existing partnership and the current solutions they deliver to their customers. At the intersection of AI readiness and high-performance computing, this collaboration directly addresses the critical need for data sovereignty. It empowers industries such as banking, financial services and the public sector to unlock the full potential of AI while ensuring secure, local data compliance.”
Pieta Heyns, MD of Dataviue, one of the AI Factory launch customers, said: “This platform offers cutting-edge AI capabilities while ensuring our clients’ data remains protected under South African regulations – eliminating compliance concerns that arise with offshore solutions.”
Breaking down cost barriers to AI innovation
The platform delivers enterprise-grade Nvidia accelerated computing infrastructure alongside AI as a service offering at competitive pricing. Altron’s approach offers dedicated capacity, enabling businesses to scale efficiently whether they’re building proprietary models or consuming AI services.
MathU’s founder, WA Burger, emphasised: “We’re accessing the same AI infrastructure that global giants use and AI models that align with our market reality. This enables us to iterate faster and scale our personalised education platform with confidence.”
Local expertise driving global standards
Altron’s team provides specialised AI consulting and managed services. This combination positions the platform as a complete AI ecosystem for South African enterprises.
“Our AI Factory gives businesses immediate access to enterprise AI infrastructure combined with the expertise to use it effectively. Instead of months of buildout, offshore dependencies or expertise gaps, our customers get the platform, the expertise and the support to make AI actually work for their business. The foundation is ready. That’s transformative,” said Mike Wright, executive for data and AI at Altron Digital Business.
Dr Bongani Andy Mabaso, Altron Group chief technology officer, added: “We’re not choosing between global technology excellence and local context; we’re combining both. Working with our technology launch partners, we’ve created an ecosystem where South African businesses can build cutting-edge AI solutions and enterprises can consume world-class AI services at competitive pricing, while maintaining local control.”
Mbali Ndandani, chief commercial officer of Lelapa AI, described the impact: “Altron’s AI Factory gives us access to existing AI models and enterprise-grade infrastructure to develop solutions for underrepresented African languages, giving enterprises the opportunity to consume our AI services without building their own infrastructure.”
Building tomorrow’s AI economy today
Altron’s AI Factory platform, combining both infrastructure and AI as a service with local control and competitive pricing, presents a compelling solution and a well-timed opportunity for South African businesses facing increasing pressure to innovate while protecting their digital assets and managing their technology investments.
This landmark initiative is built in partnership with ASUS and HPE. ASUS serves as the dedicated hardware partner, delivering the high-performance computing infrastructure, and HPE provides the marketplace software enabling the platform’s AI services.
Altron’s AI Factory is now operational and ready to onboard additional customers, marking South African AI not as a future promise but as a present reality.
Learn more about Altron’s AI Factory.
About Altron
Altron is a proudly South African technology group. We harness the power of data, technology and human ingenuity to solve real-world problems, from the everyday to the epic. A technology industry leader since 1965, we’re partnering with customers across all industries to help them grow, build a thriving economy and transform today into a simpler, safer and smarter tomorrow. Altron operates in seven countries, employs more than 4 700 people and reported revenue of R9.6-billion for the 12-month period ended 28 February 2025.
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