ACF x IRIS Africa

Strengthening AI deployment pathways between Africa and Europe.

Africa Compute Fund is pleased to share that it has signed a Letter of Intent with IRIS Africa during the AI Hub for Sustainable Development ecosystem event in Bologna, Italy.

The collaboration reflects a shared interest in supporting practical AI deployment across African markets, with a focus on the infrastructure, ecosystem, and coordination pathways required to move applied AI systems from research and experimentation into real-world use.

IRIS Africa is an EU-linked project focused on adapting European Large Language Models and risk-classification tools to African languages, cultures, and deployment contexts. The project works across applied AI use cases in sectors including agriculture and health, with activities spanning Living Labs, startup mapping, capacity building, and EU-Africa knowledge exchange.

For Africa Compute Fund, the collaboration aligns with ACF’s broader work to support the compute infrastructure and deployment conditions required by African AI ecosystems.

As AI systems become more sector-specific, locally embedded, and operationally relevant, access to compute becomes a critical foundation. Agriculture, health, public-sector services, research institutions, startups, and enterprise AI applications all require reliable infrastructure, deployment environments, technical support, and coordination across partners.

Through this Letter of Intent, ACF and IRIS Africa will explore areas of cooperation around ecosystem development, applied AI deployment, capacity building, startup engagement, and the infrastructure pathways needed to support AI systems designed for African markets.

The signing took place during the AI Hub for Sustainable Development event in Bologna, hosted with support from the Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy, BI-REX Competence Center, and CINECA.

Africa Compute Fund thanks the IRIS Africa team, SUTRA, the University of Nairobi, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and the AI Hub for Sustainable Development team for creating a platform for practical collaboration between African and European AI ecosystems.

This marks another step in ACF’s work to build the coordination layer for African AI compute infrastructure and support the partners, projects, and deployment pathways needed for the continent’s AI future.