Yinka观点 对于非洲在AI竞赛中的前景，悲观论调并不少见。我们经常被告知，这片大陆没有足够的算力、资本或能源来参与竞争。但本周我在拉各斯交谈过的投资者和创始人们并不认为这又是一场可能让非洲落后的技术革命。相反，他们将其视为一个机会，可以借助AI打造由本地创始人和工程师主导的新型变革性企业。
Yinka’s view There is no shortage of pessimism about Africa’s prospects in the AI race. The continent, we are regularly told, doesn’t have the computing power, capital, or energy to compete. But investors and founders I spoke with in Lagos this week don’t see this as another tech revolution that risks leaving Africa behind. Instead they see it as a chance to build new types of transformative businesses with AI, led by local founders and engineers.
这种热情背后有一些轶事性的证据：超过1300家公司申请了Askya增长平台上首批非洲AI初创企业项目，该平台是一项由风投支持的倡议，于本月启动。
The enthusiasm has some anecdotal evidence behind it: More than 1,300 companies applied to the inaugural cohort of African AI startups on the Askya Growth Platform, a VC-backed initiative which launched this month.
他们的任务是构建让AI在非洲市场变得有用的技术和基础设施。正如Askya投资合伙公司管理合伙人巴巴卡尔·塞克所说：“非洲不能租用AI，我们必须制造AI。”这可能意味着开发适配非洲语言的更小模型，也意味着开发让政府和企业在能源、农业和商业领域掌控敏感数据并将AI应用于本地问题的系统。
Their task is building the technology and infrastructure that make AI useful in African markets. As Babacar Seck, managing partner of Askya Investment Partners, put it, “Africa cannot be renting AI, we must be making it.”That might mean developing smaller models adapted to African languages, but also systems that let governments and businesses keep control of sensitive data and apply AI to local problems in energy, agriculture, and commerce.
总部位于洛杉矶的MaC Venture Capital管理合伙人马龙·尼科尔斯也看到了一个机会，因为风险资本正重新转向实体基础设施以及AI更难颠覆的技术。该公司已在非洲投入2000万美元的早期投资。“风投正在回归原子，回归更实体的事物，”他在拉各斯Moonshot会议的台上对我说。相比数据中心本身，他对运行数据中心的技术更感兴趣。这表明非洲公司不必构建最大的模型，也能分享AI所创造的价值。
Marlon Nichols, a managing partner of Los Angeles-based MaC Venture Capital, which has deployed $20 million in early-stage investments in Africa, also sees an opportunity with venture capital shifting back toward physical infrastructure and technologies that are harder for AI to disrupt. “VCs are going back to atoms, to more physical things,” he told me on stage at Lagos’ Moonshot conference. He is less interested in data centers themselves than in the technology that runs them. That suggests African companies don’t have to build the biggest models to share in AI’s value creation.
热情无法保证非洲诞生一代成功的AI公司，因为该大陆资本依然稀缺、基础设施昂贵，且许多初创企业的商业前景仍未经检验：申请Askaya项目的初创企业中，此次仅有11家入选。“如今非洲AI领域几乎没有资本，但人们依然在构建，”Seck表示。总体而言，根据Digital Africa的数据，2026年上半年非洲初创企业融资总额13.6亿美元，AI原生初创企业获得的份额不足2%。
Enthusiasm won’t guarantee a generation of successful African AI companies as capital remains scarce on the continent, infrastructure expensive, and many startups’ commercial prospects remain untested: Of the startups that applied to Askaya’s program, only 11 were picked this time. “There’s almost no capital today for African AI, yet people are building,” said Seck. Overall, AI-native startups took less than 2% of the $1.36 billion that African startups raised in the first half of 2026, according to Digital Africa.
但你不能忽视那些正在为大型科技公司长期服务不足的市场构建产品的创始人。机遇或许不在于追赶硅谷，而在于建立一个适合非洲的AI产业。
But you can’t overlook the founders already building for markets that Big Tech has long underserved. The opportunity may be less about catching up with Silicon Valley than building an AI industry that works for Africa.
值得注意的是，制药巨头Ro推出的新AI医疗助手Robin，可用于执行管理副作用、膳食规划或调整用药等常规任务。
Notable Pharma giant Ro’s new AI healthcare agent, Robin, could be used to perform routine tasks like managing side effects, meal planning, or making medication changes.