Recently, Altron, listed on SE, successfully deployed and operated an AI factory, bringing comprehensive and compliant AI solutions to South African enterprises, finding the perfect balance between data sovereignty and technological innovation.

This AI factory provides comprehensive services covering infrastructure, tools, training, and support, and strictly adheres to relevant regulations to ensure that data sovereignty remains within South Africa and is protected by local laws, solving key challenges for enterprises in global AI applications. It relies on NVIDIA's AI infrastructure, including accelerated computing technology and AI enterprise software, to build a solid technological foundation for enterprises.

At present, five initial customers including Dataviue, LelapaAl, and MathU have put the platform into use. Dr. Bangani Andy Mabaso, Chief Technology Officer of Altron Group, stated that the first batch of customers will help the platform achieve its goals, becoming a springboard to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence and provide services to the market, solving various challenges in a South African style.

From the deployment environment perspective, the AI factory and deployment work are carried out in an NVIDIA AI ready data center at Teraco, complementing Teraco's existing partnerships and customer solutions. Dataviue Managing Director Pieta Haines stated that the platform provides cutting-edge AI capabilities to ensure customer data is protected under South African regulations, eliminating compliance issues related to offshore solutions.

For enterprises seeking to leverage AI capabilities, Altron's AI factory is a powerful empowerment tool. With enterprise level NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure and competitive AI-as-a-service products, we provide dedicated computing capabilities to help businesses efficiently scale, whether it's building proprietary models or using AI services. MathU founder W.A. Berger mentioned that using the same AI infrastructure as global giants and models adapted to local markets can enable faster iteration and expansion of personalized education platforms. Mbali Endandani, Chief Revenue Growth Officer of Lirapa Artificial Intelligence, also pointed out that AI factories provide existing models and enterprise level infrastructure, enabling companies to develop solutions for underrepresented African languages without the need to build their own infrastructure.

Mike Wright, the head of data and AI business at Altron Digital Business, explained that AI factories enable enterprises to immediately access enterprise level AI infrastructure and use professional knowledge, without the need for months to build, rely on overseas resources, or face professional knowledge gaps, allowing AI to create value for the business. Mabaso added that this is not a choice between global technological excellence and local environment, but a combination of both. By collaborating with technology release partners, we aim to create an ecosystem that enables South African businesses to access world-class AI services at competitive prices while maintaining local control.

This milestone initiative was completed with the assistance of ASUS and HPE. Asus, as a dedicated hardware partner, provides high-performance computing infrastructure, while HPE provides support for market software, jointly promoting the platform to provide high-quality AI services.Editor/Cheng Liting