ITU Warns AI Opportunity Divide Could Deepen Global Inequality as Africa Holds Just 3 Percent of Data Centers

The International Telecommunication Union warned in October 2026 that an "opportunity divide" in artificial intelligence could worsen global inequality. The agency noted that Africa and Latin America together hold only 3.3 percent of global data center capacity, leaving developing regions at a significant disadvantage as AI reshapes economies.

The ITU, a United Nations agency that coordinates global telecommunications, released the warning as part of its annual report on digital development. The report found that AI infrastructure is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. Countries without access to this infrastructure face barriers to developing and deploying AI applications.

Data centers are the physical backbone of AI. They house the servers and computing hardware needed to train and run AI models. Building data centers requires significant capital investment, reliable electricity, and technical expertise. Many developing countries lack one or more of these prerequisites.

The concentration of AI infrastructure in wealthy countries means that AI tools are often designed for and by people in those countries. Language models, for example, perform significantly better in English and other widely spoken languages than in African or indigenous languages. This creates a gap in the usefulness of AI for populations in developing regions.

The ITU called on wealthy nations and international organizations to invest in AI infrastructure in developing countries. It also urged technology companies to prioritize multilingual AI development and to share resources with institutions in lower-income countries.

SoftBank committed $50 billion to Malaysia for AI and data center development in October 2026. India's Tata invested $450 million in an AI infrastructure project. But experts say investment in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America remains far below what is needed.

Without deliberate intervention, the ITU warned, the AI revolution could produce a world where wealthy nations grow more productive and prosperous while developing countries fall further behind.