By Urban Shihemi, November 11, 2025
The Nairobi AI Forum 2026 has marked a transformative milestone in Africa’s digital future by uniting governments, innovators, and the private sector to accelerate artificial intelligence adoption across the continent.
Anchored by the Italy-Africa Mattei Plan and powered by the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, the Forum announced access to 1.5 million GPU hours for 130 African innovators to develop AI solutions that address urgent challenges in climate resilience, local language voice AI, and food security.
Held in Nairobi on 9-10th of February 2026, the Forum convened more than 500 participants spanning Africa, Europe, and the G7, spotlighting the power of AI as a driver of sustainable development and economic growth. Central to the discussions were scalable AI infrastructure, investment-ready ecosystems, and sector-specific applications in education, agriculture, and energy.
One landmark outcome was the launch of the AI 10 Billion Initiative, a visionary co-design effort by the African Development Bank, UNDP, and private partners to mobilize up to US$10 billion to generate 45 million jobs by 2035. This initiative aims to fuel AI entrepreneurship, core data infrastructure, and continental AI policies aligned with inclusive economic growth.
Minister of University and Research in Italy, Senator Anna Maria Bernini, emphasized the strategic nature of the collaboration: “Strengthening skills, training and research is the strategic choice to support innovation, technological sovereignty and inclusive progress in Africa.”
Additional breakthroughs include the forging of a space-enabled AI collaboration for food security, melding data from Kenya’s Space Agency, Italian Space Agency, NASA Harvest, Microsoft, and other partners to create real-time geospatial insights for farmers and policymakers.
The Forum also launched the Cybersecurity Readiness Initiative to fortify African AI startups against growing digital threats, fostering secure design, skills-building, and hands-on training via collaboration with Cisco’s Nairobi Cybersecurity Training Center.
As Kenya’s ICT Cabinet Secretary, William Kabogo, and other high-level leaders gathered in deliberations, the Forum demonstrated a decisive shift toward partnerships that leverage private-sector innovation, inclusive AI infrastructure, and global alliances spanning Nairobi, Rome, San Francisco, and India.
Ambassador Philip Thigo, Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology, highlighted the evolving partnership with Italy and UNDP noting that, “Kenya and Italy, working with UNDP, are entering a defining phase of partnership, evolving beyond traditional aid towards the co-creation of future economic capability. This transition is unfolding as the global economy shifts into the Age of Intelligence.
The Ambassador noted that the Intelligence Economy will be defined by compute infrastructure, sovereign talent, shared innovation in models and applications, and the ability to translate research into industrial production.”
Emanuele Spampinato, CEO of Harmonic Innovation Group, which unveiled the Harmonic Africa Startup Acceleration Programme, underscored the ethos behind their support for African AI ventures by stating, “At Harmonic Innovation Group we believe that innovation must be ethical, inclusive, sustainable and rooted in culture. Every element of the Harmonic Africa Startup Acceleration Programme embodies these values: from respect for dignity and privacy, to the empowerment of women and young people; from the construction of green infrastructure to the enhancement of Africa’s rich cultural heritage and linguistic diversity.”
The Nairobi AI Forum 2026 illustrated a new era where AI is embedded seamlessly into African institutions, amplifying their missions with technology that delivers meaningful, scalable impact for people and the planet.
Through sustained collaboration under the Mattei Plan and AI Hub, Africa is poised to lead in building sovereign AI ecosystems that power sustainable development for generations to come.
