Stellenium is building first AI data center in West Africa (techafricanews.com)

Stellenium Corporation and the Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on October 7, 2025, to deepen academic–industry collaboration in Côte d’Ivoire — and Stellenium is announcing plans to build what it calls the first AI data center in West Africa. The partnership is part of the CESEC‑launched Silicon Valley Côte d’Ivoire Task Force and establishes a Joint Steering Committee to guide co‑development of applied research, technology programs, and infrastructure that align with the country’s digital economy priorities. For the AI/ML community, this is significant because locally hosted compute and data infrastructure can unlock faster model training and inference, improve data sovereignty, and lower barriers for regional researchers and startups that today rely on overseas cloud resources. The MoU emphasizes applied AI, data science and advanced digital systems, plus continuous training and knowledge‑transfer frameworks to build national capacity — a practical boost for talent pipelines, reproducible research, and industry‑ready projects. If realized, the data center and joint R&D programs could catalyze a West African AI ecosystem by combining compute infrastructure with curriculum, internships, and applied projects that accelerate both innovation and workforce readiness.