Google Cloud on Wednesday says its Johannesburg Cloud Region could generate an additional $90.6 billion in economic output and support nearly 315,000 jobs by 2030.

Maureen Costello, vice-president for UK, Ireland, and Sub-Saharan Africa at Google Cloud, announced this in a statement.

According to her, the projection came as the company unveiled five artificial intelligence initiatives aimed at accelerating Africa’s digital transformation through infrastructure, innovation, startup funding and digital skills development.

She said the announcements were made at Google’s inaugural Africa Cloud Summit in Johannesburg, which was attended by about 3,000 business leaders, developers, public sector officials and technology partners.

Ms Costello added that the initiatives build on its existing $1 billion investment commitment to Africa and recent investments in AI research, skills development, and innovation.

She announced plans to establish a Digital Exchange Port in South Africa’s Eastern Cape to strengthen internet resilience and international connectivity.

“The facility, the first of four planned African connectivity hubs, will connect the continent directly to Australia through the Umoja subsea cable and a new subsea route to India,’’ she said.

Ms Costello also disclosed that Google launched Africa’s first Applied AI Lab in Accra, Ghana, pairing African startup founders with Google researchers and early access to the company’s latest AI models.

She said the lab would support founders developing AI solutions for uniquely African challenges across business, education, creativity, software development and other sectors.

Ms Costello noted that African enterprises had moved beyond AI experimentation to the deployment of practical business solutions.

The Google boss also announced that applications for the 2026 South African Google for Startups Accelerator would open on July 21.

She said the accelerator would admit 15 startups for AI-focused training, mentorship, and equity-free funding, in line with Google’s commitment to support 50 African ventures by 2028.

According to her, to deepen digital skills, Google will partner with WeThinkCode to establish a R3 million digital innovation centre at South West Gauteng TVET College in Soweto.

The company also committed more than one million dollars through Google.org to support the Akuna Group’s AI education programme for underrepresented African creators.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that Africa was becoming a strategic growth region for the global cloud ecosystem, driven by investments in AI and digital infrastructure.

(NAN)