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Google announces $9 million funding for African universities, free AI Pro student plan

Google has announced a new $9 million funding package for African universities and research institutions, alongside a free one-year subscription to Google AI Pro for eligible college students across several countries. These steps are part of a broader push by the company to expand AI access, skills, and connectivity across the continent.

Over the past four years Google says it has already invested more than $17 million in funding, curriculum support, training, and computing for African higher-education institutions, and the new $9 million adds to that ongoing commitment. The company also reaffirmed its longer-term pledge of a $1 billion investment program for Africa’s digital transformation.

As part of the announcement, Google will provide free one-year Google AI Pro subscriptions to college students beginning with Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe—giving students access to tools such as Deep Research and Gemini 2.5 Pro to support research and coursework.

Google is also building four new subsea cable connectivity hubs across Africa (north, south, east, and west) to strengthen digital corridors on the continent and with the rest of the world. The company says its connectivity and skills initiatives have already helped train more than 7 million Africans, with a target to reach 3 million more students, young people, and teachers by 2030.

This investment is an important step toward democratizing access to advanced AI tools and research infrastructure across African universities—it will help researchers, lecturers, and students build locally relevant solutions and deepen the continent’s role in tomorrow’s digital economy.

Article written by Martin Kamania - Chief Operations Officer (COO) Email: martin@afeze.africa