The Nairobi AI Forum 2026, a landmark event in Africa’s artificial intelligence landscape, is set to convene on February 9–10, 2026, in Nairobi, Kenya. This invite-only, in-person working forum marks a shift from high-level discussions to actionable implementation, focusing on building sustainable, scalable, and sovereign AI infrastructure tailored to African contexts.
Co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Italy, along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the forum brings together over 400–500 participants, including private sector executives, innovators, financiers, policymakers, and representatives from African nations, the European Union, and G7 countries. It is organized in collaboration with the AI Hub for Sustainable Development and emphasizes reimagined partnerships to ensure equitable AI diffusion drawing parallels to the transformative spread of the internet and electricity.
Unlike traditional conferences, the Nairobi AI Forum is designed as an intensive, operational working session. Its agenda centers on three key pillars:
AI Infrastructure in the African Context Addressing local realities such as energy access, connectivity, data availability, and compute resources to build fit-for-purpose systems.
Cross-Border Partnerships Fostering collaborations between infrastructure builders, innovators, industry leaders, and governments to accelerate deployment in priority sectors like healthcare, education, agriculture, and sustainability.
Access to and Mobilization of Finance Exploring innovative financing models, including blended finance, public-private partnerships, venture capital, and development finance, to unlock large-scale investments and support green, sovereign AI ecosystems.
The event aims to turn Africa’s resource advantages into new industrial opportunities that promote inclusive human development while prioritizing responsible and ethical AI adoption. Discussions will link infrastructure development with real-world use cases, ensuring investments follow demand-driven innovation rather than speculative trends.
Excitement is building ahead of the forum, with Kenyan officials like Ambassador Philip Thigo, Special Envoy on Technology, highlighting its role in accelerating AI adoption through sustainable mechanisms. Participants from African startups and labs, such as Crane AI Labs, plan to showcase contributions like Bantu language models and inclusive AI solutions for education and voice interfaces. The forum is positioned as a critical precursor to subsequent global milestones, including the Italy Africa Summit in Addis Ababa and the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi later in February.
As Kenya solidifies its position as a continental AI hub bolstered by its National AI Strategy and active role in UN resolutions the Nairobi AI Forum represents a pivotal step toward an “AI-for-Africa” vision that emphasizes sovereignty, equity, and Global South leadership in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
