Published: May 2026 | Technology News.
The AI Everything Kenya summit, hosted at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, concluded after three days of exhibitions, panel discussions, and major technology announcements. The event brought together technology executives, startup founders, investors, and government officials from more than 75 countries.
Over 280 companies and startups participated in the event, including global technology brands such as Cisco, Mastercard, Kaspersky, HP, Fortinet, and ASUS. Many of these companies were exhibiting for the first time at a business-to-business technology event in East Africa. The summit also featured more than 140 expert speakers and approximately 100 investors managing billions of dollars in assets under management.
iXAfrica and Oracle Partnership
One of the most significant announcements at the summit involved iXAfrica Data Centres, which is developing East Africa’s first hyperscale AI-ready data centre in Nairobi. The company has entered into a landmark partnership with Oracle to host Kenya’s first Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region.
The chief executive of iXAfrica Data Centres said the collaboration cements Kenya’s status as a credible infrastructure location for hyperscale cloud and AI services. For Kenya and East Africa, this represents a strategic shift. Local cloud and data centre infrastructure strengthens data residency, improves resilience, supports lower-latency digital services, and gives enterprises and public sector institutions a stronger platform for innovation.
Africa’s AI Sovereignty Push
A high-level panel discussion examined the essential infrastructure foundations for Africa’s AI future. The discussion focused on the partnerships and investments required to build sovereign, locally grounded, and sustainable African AI ecosystems.
One panelist noted that Africa is at a strategic crossroads. The continent can either remain a dependent consumer of foreign AI or emerge as a sovereign architect of its own digital future. Realising this potential requires a deliberate shift from policy talk to practical investment in infrastructure, specifically in compute power, localised data systems, and energy-efficient data centres.
While Africa’s AI market is forecast to grow significantly over the next several years, the continent currently accounts for less than one percent of global data centre capacity. Frontier AI models are predominantly trained on non-African datasets, and access to affordable compute infrastructure remains inaccessible to most African startups, researchers, and institutions.
Nothing Launches in Kenya
The event also served as the launch platform for Nothing, the British consumer electronics brand. Nothing is the only new smartphone brand to emerge globally in the past decade. The company announced that its smartphones and audio products will now be available across Kenya through a partnership with Mitsumi Distribution.
The regional director for Nothing in the Middle East and Africa said Kenya is one of the most important markets in East Africa. The country has a young, dynamic population that embraces change and adopts new technology fast. The company is starting in Kenya and plans to expand across East Africa into Uganda, Rwanda, and beyond, with West African markets including Nigeria to follow.
