{"id":815665,"date":"2025-03-06T16:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=815665"},"modified":"2025-03-07T07:45:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T05:45:49","slug":"microsoft-presidents-r5-billion-message-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/815665\/microsoft-presidents-r5-billion-message-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft President’s R5 billion message for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith says South Africa needs to use more AI in the public sector, praising the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for using the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a press briefing alongside President Cyril Ramaphosa, Smith said that AI is the next general-purpose technology, which, like electricity and the steam engine, will mark a major technological advancement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said that Microsoft is investing in South Africa, with a key focus on AI infrastructure investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology giant is set to invest a further R5.4 billion in South Africa, adding to the R20.4 billion that the company has already invested (taking the total to R25.8 billion). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that the company is also bringing a large number of GPUs, which are essential for AI, to the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that infrastructure will be essential to the furthering of AI, which requires large data centres and massive amounts of electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This foundation will provide a platform layer where large language models, such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, can be created and improved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applications for AI can then be used across several sectors outside of technology, including agriculture and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that AI is like power, which will require huge amounts of capital to start but will then lead to the creation of separate industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said that South Africa can lay the financial architecture for the adoption of AI, with the public sector taking the lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can include aggregating cross-border demand, where countries share AI resources, such as access to data centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he also said that South Africa’s government should be at the forefront of using AI in its applications, which can accelerate the growth of the tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith especially praised SARS, which has been using AI extensively to boost tax collection. SARS Commissioner Edward Kiesswetter was also at the presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa would later quip that SARS is extremely efficient at using AI, as that they are good at “taking your money.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said that if all state-owned companies used AI like SARS, there would be a massive rise in data centres across the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skills issue<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Smith also noted that South Africa needs to focus on expanding skills in AI, which he and Ramaphosa said will be useful in driving growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing AI skills will require a focus on fluency, engineering and systems designs. He added that a national AI talent strategy is needed to improve the use of the rapidly evolving technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft is paying for technical certification exams for 50,000 individuals, with a focus on high-demand digital skills. The group added that it will train more people with AI skills across South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft President Brad Smith says more state-owned companies need to follow the example of SARS. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":815672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-815665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-microsoft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815665"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815728,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815665\/revisions\/815728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}