--- title: Africa’s start-ups are building on Chinese AI | daily.dev description: Norrsken22 general partner Lexi Novitske says African tech start-ups are increasingly building on open-source Chinese AI models, such as Alibaba's Qwen family,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Africa’s start-ups are building on Chinese AI | daily.dev og:description: Norrsken22 general partner Lexi Novitske says African tech start-ups are increasingly building on open-source Chinese AI models, such as Alibaba's Qwen family,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MUjf3LFTS.png og:image:alt: Africa’s start-ups are building on Chinese AI og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Africa’s start-ups are building on Chinese AI **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Norrsken22 general partner Lexi Novitske says African tech start-ups are increasingly building on open-source Chinese AI models, such as Alibaba's Qwen family, because they are cheaper and more available than alternatives, while US private capital retreats from the continent. She frames the pullback as a private-capital failure rather than a policy one, expects it to reverse within one to two years, and draws parallels to how Chinese firms like Transsion, Huawei, OPay and PalmPay built market dominance in Nigerian hardware and fintech through sustained loss-leading investment. She also discusses Norrsken22's fund status, regulatory challenges in Nigeria, and where African tech listings and IPOs are heading (Egypt, South Africa, Hong Kong, London). ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why are African tech start-ups using Chinese AI models like Qwen instead of US ones? African tech companies are building on open-source Chinese AI models, including Alibaba Cloud's Qwen family, because they are cheaper and more widely available than alternatives. Norrsken22 general partner Lexi Novitske notes this shift is being accelerated by the retreat of US private capital from the continent, which is creating space for Chinese providers to fill. _Founders weighing AI infrastructure costs across regions can follow this kind of market shift on daily.dev._ ### How did OPay and PalmPay become dominant fintech players in Nigeria? OPay built a daily user habit through ride-hailing and logistics before converting users to financial services, becoming one of Nigeria's largest agent banking platforms with savings, microloans and wealth management. PalmPay, backed by Chinese investor-led seed rounds, built payments infrastructure and became one of the market's biggest incumbents; both benefited from years of well-funded, loss-leading growth strategies. _Anyone tracking how fintech incumbents scale in emerging markets can follow such stories on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What’s next for Chinese open-source AI](https://daily.dev/posts/what-s-next-for-chinese-open-source-ai-qxynqisyo) · MIT Technology Review · 29 upvotes · 0 comments - [Chinese profits rose 25.7%. The CSI 300 fell 9% and the Star 50 fell 29%](https://daily.dev/posts/chinese-profits-rose-25-7-the-csi-300-fell-9-and-the-star-50-fell-29--mli6gogwu) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Beijing’s AI master plan has South Africa in its sights](https://daily.dev/posts/beijing-s-ai-master-plan-has-south-africa-in-its-sights-xlk2xgqqx) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Did Alibaba just kneecap its powerful Qwen AI team? Key figures depart in wake of latest open source release](https://daily.dev/posts/did-alibaba-just-kneecap-its-powerful-qwen-ai-team-key-figures-depart-in-wake-of-latest-open-source-q1cd2cdry) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Europe's Current AI Strategy is Just to Watch What Happens. That's not going to work.](https://daily.dev/posts/europe-s-current-ai-strategy-is-just-to-watch-what-happens-that-s-not-going-to-work--1ejspjegu) · Kilo Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#venture-capital](https://daily.dev/tags/venture-capital), [#fintech](https://daily.dev/tags/fintech), [#qwen](https://daily.dev/tags/qwen), [#alibaba-cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/alibaba-cloud) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Africa’s start-ups are building on Chinese AI","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts"},"datePublished":"2026-09-23T08:49:38.657Z","dateModified":"2026-09-23T08:50:01.746Z","description":"Norrsken22 general partner Lexi Novitske says African tech start-ups are increasingly building on open-source Chinese AI models, such as Alibaba's Qwen family,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8b9335386c2ba6ae313910e02429d9ae?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8b9335386c2ba6ae313910e02429d9ae?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCentral","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCentral","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RsqLDZrL--/f_auto/v1717745297/logos/techcentral","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"venture-capital,fintech,qwen,alibaba-cloud","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCentral","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Africa’s start-ups are building on Chinese AI"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-start-ups-are-building-on-chinese-ai-mujf3lfts#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why are African tech start-ups using Chinese AI models like Qwen instead of US ones?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"African tech companies are building on open-source Chinese AI models, including Alibaba Cloud's Qwen family, because they are cheaper and more widely available than alternatives. 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