JAHAZI AI RESEARCH AND BUILDER RESIDENCY
Africa should own the AI it runs on.
AgricultureManufacturingEnergyLogisticsFinance
A residency for AI builders, founders and researchers working on AI that is owned here, runs on our compute, speaks our languages and helps our economies produce more.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
01
Africa is entering the AI century as a raw material.
Our copper and cobalt go into the world’s chips and data centres, and our data trains models built elsewhere. The intelligence comes back to us as a subscription, the same way our cashews come back as packaged snacks.
02
Every AI subscription is an import.
It is paid in dollars, which most African economies are already short of. Renting all of our AI from abroad makes the dollar problem worse.
03
When AI replaces work, the wages should stay here.
If a job in Nairobi is done by software owned in California or Shenzhen, the salary, the tax and the local spending all leave with it.
04
Good enough and ours beats better and rented.
Open models can now be downloaded, adapted to our languages and run on our own hardware. Access to rented AI can be priced up or switched off from somewhere else.
05
The test is still production.
AI matters to us when it helps a farm, a factory, a port or a power plant produce more, and when the value of that stays on the continent.
What we explore
Our own compute
Models running in African data centres and on hardware we own, on grids that in places like Kenya are already mostly renewable.
Local languages
AI that understands Swahili, Amharic, Hausa, Yoruba, Zulu and more, by voice as well as text.
Small and offline
Models small enough to run on a cheap phone, or a laptop in a place with a weak signal.
Farms
Advice on crop disease, soil and weather for farmers, in their own language.
Factories
Cameras that catch defects on a processing line, and maintenance that predicts a breakdown before it stops production.
Energy
Forecasting demand and solar output for mini-grids, and helping operators balance national grids.
Trade and credit
Reading trade documents, clearing customs faster, and lending to businesses banks cannot yet assess.
Data we own
African datasets collected and governed by the communities they come from.
Work and wages
Which jobs AI changes here, and how the value of that work stays on the continent.
What we do
Building
AI builders, founders and researchers spend the Jahazi city building on open models, on problems brought by operators: a processing line, a fleet, a grid.
Research
Where AI is making African businesses more productive, who owns it, and where the money goes.
WHO IT’S FOR
AI builders
Engineers who can adapt, test and ship AI tools.
Founders
Building AI products for agriculture, manufacturing, energy, logistics or finance.
Researchers
Studying how AI changes productivity, jobs, ownership and skills.
Apply for the residency
The residency runs during the Jahazi city in Nairobi, 3 to 26 April 2027.