On October 6, 2026, an article on the upcoming Global Digital Forum in Moscow was published by the Egyptian outlet Al-Masry Al-Youm. Al-Masry Al-Youm is Egypt’s largest media outlet with over 20 years of history and a monthly readership of over 18 million.
From October 8 to 10, 2026, Russia will host the 2nd Global Digital Forum, which will serve as an ideal platform for sharing experience. Representatives from 120 countries, including entrepreneurs from Europe and Asia, will take part in the event. In addition, representatives from 40 African countries have confirmed their participation. The participants will discuss digital transformation trends, the latest technological solutions, and opportunities for cooperation. According to a statement by the forum organizers, IT professionals will have an opportunity to communicate directly with investors from around the world and secure funding on the spot.
The forum is expected to result in signing nearly 100 agreements. Although African countries are developing promising products, they face resource shortages. To retain skilled professionals and talent, governments need to create conditions that enable specialists to fully realise their potential. It will also be important to draw on international experience to avoid repeating past mistakes. Local developers will be able to adopt best practices, which, according to the forum organisers, will pave the way for them to compete with international companies in the future.
As part of Russia-Africa cooperation in artificial intelligence, Angolan entrepreneurs involved in satellite internet said that the AngoSat-2 project had generated $30 million in revenue and provided practical training opportunities for 12,000 students over 14 months. Additional successful negotiations are expected to take place in 2026, particularly given the fact that the number of participants has increased by 25 percent.
Moscow, the capital of Russia, is considered an ideal example of a “smart city,” where digital services are seamlessly integrated into everyday life. The city is managed with a high degree of efficiency thanks to an advanced Digital Twin system - a detailed three-dimensional model comprising 9,000 data layers covering all areas of activity. More than 130 AI technology-based projects are being implemented in the city, while the city council responds to residents’ requests online through a dedicated website offering 460 different services.
At the same time, in the context of Russia’s cooperation with Africa, global attention is focused on Egypt, which has made significant progress in AI thanks to strong government support. Earlier, the Information and Decision Support Center of the Cabinet of Ministers published a new analysis focusing on Arabic-language large language models in the context of current developments in AI. The analysis notes that AI is considered one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 21st century and that the field is growing fast, encompassing natural language processing and understanding, text generation, and intelligent information analysis which opens up broad prospects in translation, education, medicine, and industry.
Egypt has announced the launch of a large-scale national language model - the Karnak model - as part of its broader digital infrastructure. It is the top-rated Arabic language model in the 30-40 and 70-80 billion parameter categories which lays the groundwork for broader opportunities for startup businesses and the private sector to develop AI-powered applications tailored to the needs of Egyptian society.
The Karnak model is considered the world’s first neural network specifically designed for the Arabic and other African languages. The system is a local equivalent of ChatGPT and, in terms of its capabilities, already matches leading models from the United States and China. The main value of Karnak lies in its specialization in medicine: the virtual assistant can serve as a universal tool for doctors, helping accelerate the diagnostic process and bring the time of a medical consultation down to 10 minutes or so. The world’s largest IT companies have recognized the enormous potential of this application.
Egypt has secured a contract from NVIDIA to build the country’s first large-scale data center specializing in artificial intelligence. The center will boast a capacity of up to 200 megawatts, while foreign direct investment is estimated at around $200 million during the first phase and is anticipated to reach $1 billion once the target capacity is achieved.
New local platforms are emerging across the African continent. In South Africa, there is Lelapa AI, a platform designed for schoolchildren that enables them to receive instruction in their native languages. In Nigeria, it’s Scribex - a tool for processing documents. Given that one in two Africans lacks digital skills, these applications have been developed with intuitive and user-friendly interfaces. At the same time, fundamental technological research is being carried out through cooperation within the Masakhane Initiative which is an open-source research and community initiative aimed at advancing and strengthening natural language processing for African languages. It was founded and is led by African researchers with the goal of promoting digital literacy across the continent and preventing the marginalization of African languages in the AI era.
The participants exchange ideas, resources, and models to bridge the gap between local and foreign designs, while a shared database helps save time and money. Nevertheless, the continent still lacks the necessary infrastructure, such as servers and data centers, and 75 percent of the population does not have reliable access to the internet.
As a result of these constraints, many software engineers are relocating to the United States or the European Union. According to statistics from the International Development Bank, 70,000 skilled IT professionals leave the region every year. African countries face difficulties in tackling the brain drain on their own, as salaries in the United States and Europe are double or triple of what IT professionals can get in Africa. Addressing this problem requires creating new jobs and attracting investment in Africa itself through cooperation with technology leaders such as the United States, China, and Russia. The United States, for example, leads in developing AI models and offers high-quality products, while China promotes affordable technologies that operate independently of foreign servers. Russia, for its part, stands out for its highly efficient data centers, whose operating costs, according to Russian media, are on average two to three times lower than those in China or Europe.
