Google on Thursday announced $37 million in cumulative funding, including previously committed but unannounced funding for artificial intelligence (AI) support, research, talent development, and infrastructure across Africa.
James Manyika, senior vice president for research, labs, and technology and society at Google, said in a statement that Africa was home to some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today.
Mr Manyika said Google was committed to supporting the next wave of innovation through long-term investment, local partnerships, and platforms that help researchers and entrepreneurs build solutions that matter.
He said the funding package included funding and partnerships aimed at strengthening AI research, supporting African languages, improving food systems, expanding digital skills, and building research capacity.
According to him, the AI Collaborative for Food Security, a multi-partner initiative launched with $25 million in funding from Google.org, will bring together researchers and nonprofit organisations.
“It is to co-develop AI tools for early hunger forecasting, crop resilience, and tailored guidance for smallholder farmers.
“The goal is to help make food systems across Africa more adaptive, equitable, and resilient in the face of increasing climate and economic shocks,’’ he said.
Mr Manyika said Google also announced $3 million in funding to the Masakhane Research Foundation, the open research collective advancing AI tools in over 40 African languages.
He said he funding would support the development of high-quality datasets, machine translation models, and speech tools that make digital content more accessible to millions of Africans in their native languages.
According to him, to further empower innovation, Google is launching a catalytic funding initiative to support AI-driven startups tackling real-world challenges.
He said this platform would combine philanthropic capital, venture investment, and Google’s technical expertise to help more than 100 early-stage ventures scale AI-based solutions in agriculture, healthcare, education, and other vital sectors.
Mr Manyika said the startups would receive mentorship, access to tools, and technical guidance to support responsible development.
The Google chief said Africa’s AI talent was growing rapidly, and the infrastructure to support it must grow in tandem.
He said the highlight of this announcement was the launch of the AI Community Centre in Accra, a first-of-its-kind space for AI learning, experimentation, and collaboration in Africa.
According to him, the centre will host training sessions, community events, and workshops focused on responsible AI development.
Mr Manyika said that to help meet the rising demand for AI and digital skills, Google was rolling out 100,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships for students in higher learning institutions across Ghana.
He said these fully funded, self-paced programmes would focus on AI essentials, prompting essentials, and other high-growth fields like information technology support, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
According to him, these programmes will enable more learners to access job-ready training and build careers in AI and the digital economy.
The vice president explained that beyond Ghana, Google.org was committing an additional $7 million to support AI education across Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Mr Manyika said the funding would support academic institutions and nonprofits building localised AI curricula, online safety training, and cybersecurity programmes.
He said that, additionally, two new $1 million grants from Google.org aimed to bolster AI research capacity across the continent.
According to him, one grant goes to the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) at the University of Pretoria to support applied AI research and training.
Mr Manyika said the other would support the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute in South Africa to fund MSc and PhD students in conducting foundational AI research and help shape Africa’s role in the global AI landscape.
Also, the vice president of engineering and research at Google, Yossi Matias, said that this new wave of support reflected Google’s belief in the talent, creativity, and ingenuity across the continent.
Mr Matias said that by building with local communities and institutions, Google was supporting solutions that are rooted in Africa’s realities and built for global impact.
He said these new initiatives build on Google’s ongoing work across the continent.
Mr Matias stressed that Google’s past efforts had included partnerships to support AI-powered maternal health dashboards in Ghana and Nigeria, wildfire alerts in East Africa, and regional language models in Accra and Nairobi.
He added that they also reflected Google’s continued focus on shared infrastructure, open research, and inclusive innovation that ensured that AI worked for everyone.
(NAN)
