Google announces $37M in cumulative funding and new AI Community Center in Accra to advance AI in Africa

Ghana’s Communications Minister commissioning the AI Community Center

Google has outlined a wave of AI support across Africa, representing $37 million in cumulative funding — including previously committed but unannounced funding — to research, talent development, and infrastructure. The funding package includes funding and partnerships that aim to strengthen AI research, support African languages, improve food systems, expand digital skills, and build research capacity.

 

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 organizations 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.

 

Google also announced $3 million in funding to the Masakhane Research Foundation, the open research collective advancing AI tools in over 40 African languages. The funding will 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.

 

To further empower innovation, Google is launching a catalytic funding initiative to support AI-driven startups tackling real-world challenges. This platform will 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. Startups will also receive mentorship, access to tools, and technical guidance to support responsible development.

 

Africa’s AI talent is growing rapidly, but the infrastructure to support it must grow in tandem. That’s why a cornerstone of this announcement is the launch of the AI Community Center in Accra — a first-of-its-kind space for AI learning, experimentation, and collaboration in Africa. The Center will host training sessions, community events, and workshops focused on responsible AI development. Its programming will span four pillars: AI literacy, community technology, social impact, and arts and culture — providing a platform for a diverse ecosystem of developers, students, and creators to engage with AI in ways that are grounded in African priorities.

 

To help meet the rising demand for AI and digital skills, Google is rolling out 100,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships for students in higher learning institutions across Ghana. These fully funded, self-paced programs will focus on AI Essentials, Prompting Essentials, and other high-growth fields like IT Support, Data Analytics, and Cybersecurity — enabling more learners to access job-ready training and build careers in AI and the digital economy.

 

Beyond Ghana, Google.org is committing an additional $7 million to support AI education across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. The funding will support academic institutions and nonprofits building localized AI curricula, online safety training, and cybersecurity programs.

 

Additionally, two new $1 million grants from Google.org aim to bolster AI research capacity across the continent. 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.

 

The other supports the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute in South Africa, which will fund MSc and PhD students to conduct foundational AI research and help shape Africa’s role in the global AI landscape.

 

Speaking about the announcements, James Manyika, Senior Vice President for Research, Labs, and Technology & Society at Google, said: “Africa is home to some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today. We are 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.”

 

Yossi Matias, Vice President of Engineering and Research at Google, added: “This new wave of support reflects our belief in the talent, creativity, and ingenuity across the continent. By building with local communities and institutions, we’re supporting solutions that are rooted in Africa’s realities and built for global impact.”

 

These new initiatives build on Google’s ongoing work across the continent. Past efforts have included partnerships to support AI-powered maternal health dashboards in Ghana and Nigeria, wildfire alerts in East Africa, and regional language models developed by teams in Accra and Nairobi. They also reflect Google’s continued focus on shared infrastructure, open research, and inclusive innovation that ensures AI works for everyone.

 

 

About the initiatives

 

AI Collaborative: Food Security

 

Backed by a $25 million support allocation from Google.org, the AI Collaborative: Food Security is a multi-stakeholder initiative designed to help researchers and NGOs harness AI to tackle hunger and strengthen local food systems. The initiative supports projects that improve hunger forecasting, enhance crop resilience, and deliver real-time, AI-driven guidance to smallholder farmers, aiming to boost agricultural productivity and resilience in the face of climate disruption.

 

Masakhane African Languages AI Hub

 

With a $3 million funding allocation, Google.org is supporting Masakhane to expand the development of open-source AI tools across more than 40 African languages. The Hub brings together linguists, technologists, and local communities to create language datasets, machine translation models, and voice technologies that improve digital access for millions, ensuring African languages are represented and usable in today’s AI-powered world.

 

Catalytic Startup Fund for AI Innovation

 

Google is launching a catalytic fund to support impact-driven AI startups across Africa. This initiative brings together philanthropic capital, venture funding, and Google’s technical support to help over 100 startups scale solutions in agriculture, health, education, and commerce. By providing early-stage funding and mentorship, it seeks to close critical gaps for local founders building AI tools for African needs.

 

AI Community Center, Accra

 

The newly launched AI Community Center in Accra is a first-of-its-kind hub designed to democratize access to AI learning, collaboration, and experimentation. Built around four core program pillars — tech development, AI literacy, social impact, and arts and culture — the Center offers workshops, hackathons, and research programming for students, developers, civil society, and creatives, all rooted in local contexts and challenges.

 

Google Career Certificates for AI Skills

 

Google is offering 100,000 fully funded Career Certificate scholarships to students in higher education institutions across Ghana. These flexible, self-paced courses provide job-ready training in AI Essentials, Prompting Essentials, and other fast-growing tech fields like Data Analytics and Cybersecurity, empowering the next generation of AI professionals to thrive in Africa’s digital economy.

 

$7M Google.org Investment in AI Skilling Programs

 

As part of its broader AI education mission, Google.org is investing $7 million in nonprofit and academic partners across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. This funding supports the development of localized AI curricula, cybersecurity training, and responsible AI education for youth, public sector workers, and nonprofit organizations — ensuring AI access and literacy reach every level of society.

 

$1M in Funding by Google.org to AfriDSAI, University of Pretoria is providing $1 million in funding to the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) at the University of Pretoria. This initiative will support applied AI and data science research to address critical African challenges, enhance lives across the continent, and strengthen capacity for emerging African researchers.

 

$1M in Funding by Google.org  to Wits MIND Institute To help establish Africa’s leadership in global AI research, Google.org is providing $1 million in funding to the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute in South Africa. This funding will support MSc and PhD students conducting foundational research, fostering a new generation of AI experts to shape innovation and policy from an African perspective.

 

Bios 

 

Yossi Matias- Vice President, Engineering & Research, Google | Headshot

 

Yossi Matias is on the leadership team of Google Research. Yossi is the global lead of Google’s Climate AI and Sustainability research, and of Health AI research, and is leading pioneering efforts in Generative AI. A world-renowned expert in artificial intelligence and in the leadership of global product and technology innovation, his team works on impact-driven research, innovation, and moonshots, advancing AI for the benefit of society. Yossi was previously on Google’s Search leadership for over a decade.

 

Yossi is also the founding managing director of Google’s center in Israel, oversaw Google’s site in Bangalore, and oversees Google’s expanding Research Center in Africa. Among his many initiatives, he was a founding exec lead of Google’s AI for Social Good, Google’s Crisis Response efforts, Google for Startup Accelerator, Startups for Sustainable Development and Google’s Cultural Institute.

 

 

On the academic side, Yossi is on the Computer Science faculty at Tel Aviv University, and previously a Research Scientist at Bell Labs and visiting professor at Stanford. He has published over 100 papers and is the inventor of over 65 patents. Yossi is a recipient of the Godel Prize, an ACM Fellow, and a recipient of the ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award for seminal work on large-scale data analytics.

 

 

https://research.google/people/YossiMatias/

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yossimatias/

 

 

James Manyika, Senior Vice President for Research, Labs, Technology & Society | Headshot

 

As Senior Vice President for Research, Labs, Technology & Society, James Manyika focuses on advancing Google and Alphabet’s most ambitious innovations in AI, computing and science and on areas with potential for beneficial impact on society. He leads the Google Research, Google Labs, Learning & Sustainability, and Technology & Society teams.

 

James served as Vice Chair of the US National AI Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s AI Advisory Body. He has also previously served as Vice Chair of the Global Development Council at the White House and on the Digital Economy Board, the National Innovation Board, and the US Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He is on the board of directors for the Council of Foreign Relations.

 

He is Senior Partner, Emeritus of McKinsey & Company, and Chair and Director, Emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). At McKinsey, he advised the chief executives of many of the world’s leading technology companies and he led MGI’s research on technology, the economy, competitiveness, and other global economy trends.

 

James is a Visiting Professor at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. He serves on the board of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and on the advisory councils for MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing, Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI. He’s a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Distinguished Fellow of Stanford’s HAI and in Ethics in AI at Oxford, and has been a Fellow of Balliol College and All Souls College (Oxford).

 

 

A Rhodes Scholar, James has DPhil, MSc with distinction and MA from Oxford in AI and robotics, mathematics, and computer science, and a BSc first class in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe.