Nairobi, Kenya — 21 May 2026 — Qhala, Amini AI, Angani and iXAfrica Data Centres today announced a collaboration to host Qubit Hub at iXAfrica NBOX1, creating a strategic environment where AI research, cloud capability, data infrastructure and digital sovereignty can converge.
The announcement was made during AI Everything GITEX Kenya 2026, as Kenya continues to position itself as a serious AI, cloud and digital infrastructure hub for Africa. Qubit Hub, incubated by Qhala under QTrust, is an African AI research, innovation and development lab designed to bring together researchers, technologists, data scientists, policymakers and builders working on practical AI solutions for the continent.
This collaboration brings together a complementary ecosystem: Qhala provides the innovation, research and ecosystem-building platform behind Qubit Hub; Amini AI strengthens the sovereign, compute, AI and data infrastructure layer; Angani brings local cloud capability to support testing, deployment and scale; and iXAfrica provides the AI-ready, carrier-neutral data centre infrastructure required to host and power the ecosystem.
Together, the partners are creating a local foundation for African AI development that moves beyond ambition into practical execution. Qubit Hub is designed to bring Africa’s AI builders, researchers, technologists and policymakers closer to the infrastructure they need to build responsibly and at scale, creating the right environment for African AI innovation to move from ideas into real-world deployment.
“With this partnership, we are solving for compute, talent and community. iXAfrica is AI-ready, and they are providing the infrastructure we need to ensure we can scale as the continent’s needs grow — which means we can deliver this not just to Kenya, but to researchers across the region. This is not a Kenya-only construct. It is about providing compute to AI builders and researchers across Africa,” said Qhala CEO, Dr. Shikoh Gitau. “This is exciting.”
The collaboration reflects a clear shift in Africa’s AI conversation: the next phase will not be won by models alone, but by trusted data, cloud access, compute capacity, governance, local infrastructure and ecosystem coordination. By hosting Qubit Hub infrastructure at iXAfrica, the partners are reinforcing Kenya’s role as a launchpad for AI innovation, sovereign cloud, data infrastructure and regional digital growth.
The partners said the collaboration is intended to support researchers, startups, enterprises and policymakers as they move from AI discussion to practical deployment, with Kenya positioned as a key base for Africa’s AI infrastructure ecosystem.
About Qubit Hub
Qubit Hub is an African-based AI research, innovation and development lab incubated by Qhala under QTrust. It brings together African researchers in data analysis, machine learning and policy to ideate, incubate, design, develop and deploy AI initiatives, while supporting practical governance conversations for Africa’s AI future.
About Qhala
Qhala is an African digital transformation and innovation company focused on catalysing Africa’s digital future. The company works with organisations to co-create digital products, services and new business models by combining strategy, research, design, data and technology. Through its work across sectors such as healthcare, financial services, the digital economy and innovation ecosystems, Qhala helps institutions improve operational efficiency, unlock new value and build digital solutions that are relevant to Africa’s needs and future growth.
About Amini AI
Amini AI is a sovereign AI infrastructure company building data and AI systems for Africa and the Global South. The company enables nations and enterprises to own, process and govern their data securely, locally and at scale. Its work spans sovereign data infrastructure, AI systems, compute, and connectivity, helping address data scarcity and infrastructure constraints that have limited AI adoption across emerging markets.
About Angani
Angani is East Africa’s leading cloud services provider. A pioneer in locally hosted cloud infrastructure. With more than a decade of cloud experience, Angani supports businesses, developers and institutions with secure, scalable and locally relevant cloud services designed for performance, reliability, affordability and data residency. Its work strengthens East Africa’s digital ecosystem by giving enterprises and innovators access to cloud infrastructure closer to where their users, data and operations are based.
About iXAfrica Data Centers
iXAfrica Data Centre Limited in Nairobi, Kenya is East Africa’s first Hyper-scale Carrier-neutral, AI-ready Data Centre. iXAfrica’s 22.5 MW campus provides world-class and highly resilient Data Centre infrastructure to create a vital part of the internet backbone of East Africa. iXAfrica is also able to power the high-density AI workloads as high as 50 kW per rack using its free-air cooling technology. Over 90% of Kenya’s electricity is generated from renewable energy sources.
Media Contacts
iXAfrica Data Centers
Murage Gichuki
Marketing Manager
info@ixafrica.co.ke, +254 793 973 584, www.ixafrica.co.ke
Media Contacts
Qhala Limited
Laura Walubengo
Media LiaisonLaura.Walubengo@qhala.com,
+254722782444, www.qhala.com
