{"id":53995,"date":"2026-03-26T17:49:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=53995"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:49:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:49:26","slug":"279521","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/26\/279521\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN invests in AI network start-up alongside Nvidia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_261827\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261827\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-261827 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MTN-invests-in-AI-network-start-up-alongside-Nvidia.jpg?resize=640%2C341&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"MTN invests in AI network start-up alongside Nvidia - Mazen Mrou\u00e9\" width=\"640\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MTN-invests-in-AI-network-start-up-alongside-Nvidia.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mazen-Mroue-1500-800-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mazen-Mroue-1500-800-1024x546.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mazen-Mroue-1500-800-768x410.jpg 768w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mazen-Mroue-1500-800-150x80.jpg 150w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mazen-Mroue-1500-800-450x240.jpg 450w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mazen-Mroue-1500-800-1200x640.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-261827\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mazen Mrou\u00e9, CEO of MTN Digital Infrastructure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MTN Group\u2019s digital<\/strong> infrastructure arm has joined a US$45-million funding round in ORAN Development Company (ODC), a US-based start-up building AI-native radio access network technology, alongside Nvidia, Cisco, Nokia, AT&amp;T and Telecom Italia.<\/p>\n<p>The series-A round, announced on Thursday, positions ODC to develop software that would transform conventional cell towers into edge computing hubs capable of running AI workloads locally \u2014 rather than routing data back to centralised data centres.<\/p>\n<p>The technology, known as AI-RAN, integrates AI processing and sensing capabilities directly into the radio access network. ODC\u2019s platform is built on Nvidia\u2019s AI Aerial software stack for high-performance, software-defined 5G.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"modern-quote pull alignright\">ODC\u2019s platform is built on Nvidia\u2019s AI software stack for high-performance, software-defined 5G<br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p>For MTN, the investment is a bet on next-generation network architecture that could have significant implications for African markets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Africa, AI-RAN represents a leapfrog opportunity to deliver world-class intelligence from our largest cities to our most remote rural villages,\u201d said Mazen Mrou\u00e9, CEO of MTN Digital Infrastructure, in a statement. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about connectivity. It\u2019s about building the distributed AI compute foundation required to accelerate financial inclusion, industrial autonomy and local innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mroue framed the investment as part of a push towards \u201csovereign AI\u201d on the continent \u2014 the idea that African countries should develop locally hosted AI compute capacity rather than depending on offshore infrastructure.<\/p>\n<h2>AI data centres<\/h2>\n<p>In its 2025 annual results, published earlier this month, MTN said it was positioning for AI-enabled data centres in South Africa and Nigeria and had shortlisted strategic partners for greenfield development.<\/p>\n<p>ODC said the funding will accelerate the commercial deployment of its Odyssey platform throughout 2026. The company is working with global customers but has not disclosed specific African deployment timelines.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: right;\">Read: MTN\u2019s mobile money machine<\/h3>\n<p>Other investors in the round include Booz Allen, Phoenix Venture Partners and affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, which participated in an earlier seed round.\u00a0 \u2014 <em>(c) 2026 NewsCentral Media<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"mt24\">\n<div data-qa-component=\"story-content-collapsable\">\n<div class=\"mh-auto overflow-hidden mh-none--print\" data-qa-component=\"collapsable-content\">\n<div class=\"font-knowledge regular line-height-1-5 color-black f6 pt16 pb20 border-bottom border-gray-22 story-copy\" dir=\"auto\" data-qa-component=\"item-story\" data-rc-highlight=\"story\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><i>Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><span class=\"s2\"><b><i>Sign up here<\/i><\/b><\/span><b><i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#MTN #invests #network #startup #Nvidia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mazen Mrou\u00e9, CEO of MTN Digital Infrastructure MTN Group\u2019s digital infrastructure arm has joined a US$45-million funding round in ORAN&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53997,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53995\/revisions\/53997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}