Internet and connectivity services company Google Cloud has launched its first cloud region for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which will provide low-latency access for businesses of all sizes to the company's and its partners's cloud and AI services and products.

Emerging technologies such as AI and cloud can accelerate growth on the continent. AI could add $30-billion to Africa's economies by 2030 and empower African businesses to build world-class technology, Google sub-Saharan Africa MD Alex Okosi said at the launch event in Midrand, Gauteng.

This investment is the latest investment it is making in Africa's technology ecosystem and is part of the $1-billion Google pledged to support Africa's growth, he noted.

The cloud region is built to be secure and scalable and is well equipped to provide the private and public sectors in the region.

“Our services can help to support a range of public and private AI uses, including boosting productivity and providing disaster-forecasting and prediction capabilities, as examples.

“Cloud computing is the engine that powers these applications and can unleash the economic value in Africa by increasing efficiencies. Businesses can leverage the technology to optimise their resources, transform their operations and grow. We are excited to be part of Africa's digital transformation,” he said.

The latest cloud region – bringing Google's total cloud regions to 42 – was projected to fuel economic output in Africa. Organisations of all sizes were innovating by using AI and machine learning products and solutions, said Google Cloud Europe, Middle East and Africa president Tara Brady.

Google's investment in the cloud region also included training not only for its staff, but also for customers, partners, channel partners and their technical personnel. AI could not have the expected impact if it was not adopted, he highlighted.

With the momentum seen over the past two years with generative AI (genAI), Google had dedicated itself to evolving its AI platform to cater to the needs of all AI customers. The impact of AI's use was already being seen across industries, said Google Cloud VP for applied AI engineering Hamidou Dia.

“This is our first data centre in Africa,” he said.

The company would not disclose how many data centres it was deploying in South Africa and the region - mentioning only that it was a co-located cloud - but emphasised that the services were of enterprise-grade quality and availability, and with enterprise-grade redundancy and cybersecurity.

However, the capabilities to manage and automate business workflows, automatically generate content or responses to queries, and build their own AI agents were all available to customers in sub-Saharan Africa through the Vertex AI platform, which was part of its cloud services, Dia said.

Vertex is a vertically integrated enterprise platform that allows customers to leverage the AI hypercomputer and is also a fully integrated platform that is designed for machine learning workloads, for those who want to train or build their own models.

On top of this platform are the company's models, which include first-party, third-party and open models that customers can use. There are more than 150 models in the Google Model Garden.

The company also provides pre-built AI agents, such as Gemini AI for Google Workspace agent and its Google for AI Cloud agent that helps users to work productively on Google Cloud from code generation to source control, Dia said.

The Vertex AI Platform is available to customers – this new cloud region started operating in January – and allows enterprises to build sophisticated genAI solutions that are highly secure and will not leak information out of the organisation or into the public domain, he added.

Further, a recent survey funded by Google Cloud and Google Research showed that more than 61% of organisations worldwide were deploying genAI applications in production environments, Dia pointed out.

“It is not about experimenting or demonstrations anymore, but about driving business transformation using AI by, for example, radically automating the workflow using an AI agent and by delivering business value to the organisation.

“AI is becoming an indispensable partner across industries by blending reasoning and autonomous process and providing insights to drive innovation and decision-making,” he said.

Google conducts its own AI research through Google DeepMind because it was "too important for the future”, he added.

The company's AlphaFold model, which has revealed millions of intricate 3D protein structures and is helping scientists understand how all of life's molecules interact, was awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry, as it could pave the way for new treatments and medicines, he highlighted.

“We are well positioned to help customers to build transformation genAI solutions with confidence and speed. We have the products and platform to bring these services to people at scale,” Dia said.