The money & metal first.

Real capital is flowing into local AI rails. Microsoft committed ZAR 5.4 bn (~$297–300m) to expand cloud/AI infrastructure in SA by 2027, paired with a plan to train 1 million South Africans in AI/cyber skills by 2026. SourceReuters That matters because Africa still has <1% of global data-centre capacity and is racing to localize compute. Reuters SA also formalized the AI Institute (UJ & TUT) as a skills/innovation anchor this year. OECD AI On the startup side, Cape Town’s Cerebrium raised ~R151m for serverless AI infra, a signal that “make AI cheaper to run” is investable here. IOL

Adoption is uneven—but real—in four sectors:
• Retail: Checkers is piloting smart trolleys (scan-as-you-shop with on-cart checkout), while Pick n Pay leans on AI across a revamped app, personalization and supply-chain. ReutersIOLZawya
• Banking: Standard Bank just made AI risk/ethics training compulsory for staff; most big banks now run gen-AI pilots for ops and service. ITWebAzilen Technologies –
• Mining/Industry: Predictive maintenance, digital twins and exploration analytics are moving from pilots to playbooks across SA operations. Mining Weeklysaimm.co.zaAfrican Mining Market
• Health: From TB triage to imaging, local deployments are scaling; SA’s AI medical-imaging market could 10× this decade if the data pipelines mature. African Businesssamedical.org

Two tailwinds most people miss:
1. Power outlook is improving. Eskom’s latest summer outlook projects no load-shedding Sep 2025–Mar 2026 after a winter with just 26 hours of outages—critical for AI hosting economics. Reuterseskom.co.zaTimesLIVE
2. Skills flywheel is forming. Besides Microsoft’s pledge, the AI Institute hubs are ramping programs with local universities. ReutersOECD AI

But here’s the hard part: Africa captured just ~0.02% of global AI funding in Q2 2025; SA competes in a capital-scarce neighborhood, and compute still skews expensive. Tech In Africa