00:00At Uganda's Karuma hydropower plant, a major energy project built by China on the River Nile,
00:14Africa's digital ambitions are taking shape alongside its power infrastructure.
00:19Developers say the facility is designed to support large-scale artificial intelligence computing
00:24with operations expected to go live this year.
00:27We've got a 100 megawatts hyperscale, what you call a supercomputer, an ecosystem of supercomputers
00:39and AI factories out there in Karuma.
00:43All of that will be sitting on an 80-acre facility, which will take everything that's going in there.
00:49What we've done now is to break the project into four separate areas.
00:53The first part of it is the first supercomputer that is coming into Africa.
00:59It's called the UCL. UCL means, in Swahili, it means infinite.
01:05The $1.2 billion project developed by Cinetics Technologies, with partners including NVIDIA and Schneider Electric,
01:15sits near the 600 megawatt Karuma Dam.
01:17Developers say the location offers something rare in Africa, stable, renewable power at scale.
01:24When you're looking at the hydro, it's extremely stable, it's green energy, it's very well-priced also.
01:34The fact that we are also by the water, because there are certain challenges you have when you're running data centers,
01:40supercomputers, AI factories and so on, which is the heat that it generates.
01:45So even the water from Victoria now, you now use it to cool down your system.
01:49While advanced AI computing powers carry out research in North America, Europe and parts of Asia,
01:56Africa has largely been left out, until now.
02:00This project reflects a growing shift where major energy investments are now being linked to digital infrastructure.
02:08But artificial intelligence requires constant heavy power,
02:11raising broader questions about whether Africa's energy systems are ready for an AI-driven future.
02:18Beyond computing, the project also includes an artificial intelligence center
02:23that combines research, training and commercial innovation focused on African solutions.
02:29We are currently developing our artificial intelligence strategy that we expect to be ready by the end of this financial year.
02:38However, all the other laws that we have in place, the Computer Misuse Act, the Data Protection Law, Electronic Transactions Act,
02:48and all those are supporting the utilization and effective use of artificial intelligence.
02:56Media Studies
02:56Media Studies
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