MTN to turn its African towers into an AI inference grid

▤ Summary

MTN Group plans to install open GPU infrastructure at its African base-station towers so the same hardware can run radio access functions and edge AI inference workloads. The company will replace single-purpose baseband units with GPU configurations and is also building two AI-enabled data centres (in South Africa and Nigeria) as part of the same strategy. MTN says the distributed AI grid will reduce latency, free backhaul capacity, and enable local AI processing, aiming to become the continent’s largest distributor of edge inference. The move sits inside MTN’s Ambition 2030 strategy and includes procuring silicon, running cloud platforms, curating models, and building terrestrial fibre to support a sovereign-AI thesis for Africa.

▦ Linked Companies

NVIDIA Corporation

$1B+

Cisco

$1B+

Nokia Corporation

$1B+