Novation City — Sousse's NVIDIA-Backed AI Innovation Hub for Africa

Novation City, a technology park in Sousse focused on mechatronics (IT, mechanics and electronics), launched an AI innovation hub in 2025 built in partnership with the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI). The hub is one node in NVIDIA's continent-wide commitment to train 100,000 African developers over three years, a goal NVIDIA reports was roughly a quarter complete at the time of the hub's launch. Novation City also hosts, via a partnership with the International Centre for Industry 4.0 Transformation (INCIT), what is reported as North Africa's first Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) training and certification centre.
The park has already attracted concrete private investment distinct from the new AI hub: in 2023 German automotive supplier Draxlmaier announced a research, development and IT centre — the 'Sousse Hub' — inside Novation City, and the site's long-running Tech216 initiative is credited with creating close to 450 jobs since 2019. Tunisian and African media frame Novation City as central to the country's ambition to reposition itself from call-centre outsourcing toward higher-value AI development work.
Because the AI hub itself only launched in 2025, there is not yet independent data on trainees, spin-off companies or job creation attributable specifically to the DLI partnership; the strongest available evidence concerns the park's pre-existing tenants (Draxlmaier, Tech216) rather than the new AI programme. This should be read as an early-stage but credibly resourced initiative rather than a proven outcome.

Read the full analysis: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/tunisia-ai-innovation-hub