DeepSeek and Huawei Lead African AI Market

Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek is reportedly leading the African AI market in collaboration with Huawei, as reported by Bloomberg on the 22nd.

Shiko Kitau, CEO of Kenya's AI startup Qala, noted that since the announcement of its AI business with Huawei in Nairobi in January, DeepSeek's influence has expanded across Africa.

Kitau stated that experiments with Western AI models like Antropic's Claude and Google's Gemini were promising but costly, making them less attractive to young African entrepreneurs. DeepSeek's January announcement offered significantly lower prices, prompting a shift to its platform.

Harrison Lee, a senior solution developer at Huawei, emphasized the intense interest in DeepSeek, noting that it dominates conversations in the African AI sector.

Bloomberg attributes DeepSeek and Huawei's dominance in the African AI market to their competitive pricing. With limited AI resources in Africa, affordable AI products are crucial.

DeepSeek's parent company HighFlyer and Huawei have collaborated to penetrate the African market. Huawei offers various package products through its cloud computing services, enabling cost-effective use of DeepSeek.

Chief Lee highlighted that DeepSeek's advantage lies in its lower cost compared to Silicon Valley's open AI, and its ability to run on less expensive hardware.