It is a platform to examine how Africa’s AI ambitions can be supported through regional approaches to shared compute, infrastructure investment, economic investment, governance, and partnerships that strengthen Africa’s AI ecosystem.  

The conference will place this continental discourse at the crossroads of a diverse range of stakeholders, who will concretely define actionable approaches for policy beyond rhetoric. With severe shortfalls in power, connectivity, human capital, network bandwidth, and an evolving policy environment, the expansion of locally owned compute infrastructure remains an important priority for Africa’s AI ecosystem. Undoubtedly, the African compute infrastructure will be built. 

This conference will frame a roadmap for governments to incentivize African multinationals towards the uptake of AI infrastructure to achieve digital sovereignty; largely by upskilling and building industry-specific AI solutions to capture future market value. Stakeholders will discuss how to best capitalize on AI innovation and invest in solutions that benefit local communities. 

Build 2026 places high premium on private sector role and policy parallels, calling for a heavy private sector presence as a requisite to spur investment and influence government policy, aware that investor incentives engender optimism for private solutions. The conference seeks to enlist private sector interest through advocacy for clear policies and business models. Indeed, Africa must translate the existing continental AI strategy into concrete negotiation, pricing and procurement frameworks, thus co-creating a clear picture of what her AI sovereignty targets are.