Chinese technology companies are emerging as important contributors to Africa's artificial intelligence ecosystem, particularly by promoting open-source AI models, experts say.
Wu Chenglin, founder and CEO of DeepWisdom in Xiamen, Fujian province, said open-source AI is playing a growing role in lowering barriers to technology adoption and expanding access to advanced digital tools across emerging markets, including Africa.
Such models allow developers and businesses to download model weights, deploy them locally, modify architectures and train systems using their own data, making AI more accessible than traditional closed-source systems, Wu said.
In recent years, Chinese tech companies have increasingly embraced open-source strategies to accelerate innovation and expand global collaboration, he said. Companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance have released or supported open-source large language models, attracting developers worldwide.
Wu said this approach helps reduce the cost and technical barriers of building AI solutions, allowing entrepreneurs, small businesses and independent developers to experiment with the technology.
