From Turin, the AI Hub Ignites Africa-Europe AI Collaboration and Matchmaking

Convened on the heels of the Nairobi AI Forum and the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, the "Shaping AI Futures Across Africa and Europe" ecosystem event laid the groundwork for collaborative pathways in sustainable AI infrastructure, climate and energy systems, education and skills

Turin, Italy | 12 March 2026: Turin today hosted a landmark international event with Africa AI innovators and leaders from the Italian and European industrial and innovation ecosystem. An action-packed day of pitching, collaboration and matchmaking with more than 200 attendees joining cross continental, the commitments demonstrate how African and European partners are moving from co-design to operational scale for measured AI impact.

From thematic deep dives to B2B matchmaking sessions, the importance of re-imagining partnerships to accelerate talent, innovation and inclusive growth was definitive. The discussions highlighted the value of fostering a win-win ecosystem, which aligns governments, energy providers, critical-minerals value chains, connectivity actors, and compute and micro-data centre companies around a common objective.

Aligned with the Italy-Africa Mattei Plan and UNDP-Italy cooperation framework, the event was hosted at the UN Campus at the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) in partnership with the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the United Nations Development Programme, ITCILO, the City of Turin, the House of Emerging Technologies, AI4Industry, and the Industrial Union of Turin.

Since its launch in June 2025, the AI Hub for Sustainable Development has mobilized 1.5 million graphics processing unit (GPU) hours through CINECA and allocated USD 3 million in cloud credits from Microsoft and AWS, with more than 50 startups already running live workloads across healthcare, multilingual AI in 40+ African languages, agriculture, and energy.

Participating African AI innovators from the AI Hub's programmes included: Africa Compute Fund (green compute infrastructure), AI Grid SOL (sustainable computing grids), Artificial Intelligence Centre of Africa (AI ecosystem building), Armstrong (AI-powered fluid tech for efficiency), Chestify AI Labs (AI health diagnostics), Deepleaf (AI-powered crop health monitoring), Hasab AI (audio intelligence for African languages), Rydlr Cloud Services (green data centres and GPU clouds), and Africa Climate & Energy Nexus (AI platform for renewable energy and climate finance).

"Artificial Intelligence is an impact multiplier, and today's event has enabled us to connect the local ecosystem with the activities of the AI Hub and with the talented African innovators who took part in the initiative. This is the first in a series that we intend to replicate in other Italian cities, in order to involve other industrial ecosystems in our country, across Europe, and in Africa", stated Senator Adolfo Urso, Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy in a recorded address.

"Turin shows what becomes possible when African AI innovators and European industrial ecosystems come together around shared ambition. The start-ups and innovators in the AI Hub programmes are key to these mutually-beneficial partnerships we are building here as equal partners. This is the transformative model we intend to make the hallmark of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development," said Dr. Eva Spina, Chair, Executive Steering Group, AI Hub for Sustainable Development, Head of Department for Digital, Connectivity and New Technologies, Ministry of Entreprises and Made in Italy.

""In the EU AI Office, we put a lot of emphasis on responsible innovation and are developing our own portfolio of open-source models in high-impact sectors. As we are increasing our engagement on AI in Africa, we wish to contribute our experience to the AI Hub. Today represents an important step in building a model for how Europe and Africa can work together in the era of artificial intelligence," said Lucilla Sioli, Director of EU AI Office, European Commission.

"What the AI Hub, the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy and partners built today in Turin is how Africa-Europe cooperation should actually work - not just announcements, but operational matchmaking between African AI startups and Italian industry. DeepLeaf already delivers AI-powered agricultural intelligence to around five million farmers across eight countries. Today, we got the European pathway to scale that impact. The billions pledged to Africa only reach the ground through impact-driven pipelines like this one," said El Mahdi Aboulmanadel Founder and CEO of DeepLeaf.

"The dialogue between European innovation ecosystems and African startups represents a concrete opportunity to build new industrial, scientific and entrepreneurial partnerships. Through our experimentation platforms - from Torino City Lab to the House of Emerging Technologies and the ToMove Living Lab - we aim to contribute to the development of ethical and sustainable AI solutions capable of generating value for territories and citizens," said Chiara Foglietta, Deputy Mayor for Innovation, Mobility, Transport and Ecological Transition, City of Turin.

This timely convening in Turin builds on the progress of the Nairobi AI Forum held in February 2026 that catalyzed the co-design of the AI 10 Billion Initiative with the African Development Bank, UNDP, the AI Hub and partners. A trilateral agreement between Italy, India, and Kenya was also signed at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi to accelerate voice-enabled AI in key sectors joining the effort towards 100 AI Diffusion Pathways by 2030.

By 2028, the AI Hub targets more than 200 innovators with infrastructure access, 15,000+ startups engaged, 60+ private sector partners, and AI systems in 30+ African languages across 29 countries.

Galleria fotografica