Zimbabwe’s richest man, Strive Masiyiwa, has officially severed financial ties with U.S. streaming giant Netflix after selling off his remaining shares in the company. On July 1, Masiyiwa offloaded his final 290 Netflix shares for a total of $387,596, at a per-share price of $1,336.54, marking the end of his direct ownership in the tech and media powerhouse.
The billionaire’s exit from Netflix came on the same day several company insiders, including co-founder Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann, also sold significant blocks of stock. The wave of insider selling is seen by market watchers as part of a broader trend among high-level stakeholders seeking to unlock value amid evolving market dynamics and a maturing streaming industry.
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Masiyiwa joined the Netflix board of directors in December 2020, becoming the first African to sit on the board of the global entertainment company. His presence signaled Netflix’s increasing interest in Africa as a strategic market and his growing stature as a global tech and media leader. Since then, Masiyiwa has gradually divested his holdings, with a major sale in May 2025 where he sold 1,002 shares for approximately $1.1 million. Over the past year, he has sold a total of 4,105 Netflix shares and acquired none, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
His complete divestment mirrors similar moves by hedge fund firms such as Two Sigma Investments, led by billionaires John Overdeck and David Siegel, which have also reduced their Netflix positions in recent months. Analysts suggest these exits may reflect a recalibration of investment strategies amid shifts in the tech sector and a renewed focus on emerging innovation opportunities.
For Masiyiwa, those opportunities lie closer to home. While best known for founding Econet Wireless in 1998, a company now operating in over 20 African countries, Masiyiwa has expanded his interests far beyond telecommunications. Today, his pan-African technology company, Cassava Technologies, is at the forefront of building Africa’s first artificial intelligence infrastructure in partnership with U.S. chipmaking giant NVIDIA.
The project is a bold and transformative vision for the continent’s digital future. Through this partnership, Cassava is deploying thousands of NVIDIA’s advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) across Africa to establish a scalable AI computing ecosystem. South Africa was the first to benefit from the initiative, with 3,000 GPUs installed at a high-performance computing facility in June 2025.
According to Hardy Pemhiwa, President and CEO of Cassava Technologies, another 9,000 GPUs are scheduled to be rolled out in Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, and Egypt over the coming months. The infrastructure will also embed NVIDIA’s AI software stack, giving African researchers, governments, startups, and enterprises access to world-class computing power for developing homegrown solutions in health, education, agriculture, infrastructure, and other critical sectors.
“Our goal is to ensure that Africa doesn’t just consume AI solutions from abroad but becomes a leading innovator in its own right,” Pemhiwa said. “This infrastructure will empower African talent to develop technologies that address our unique challenges and drive inclusive growth.”
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Masiyiwa’s pivot to AI builds on his decades-long legacy of using technology to solve social and economic problems across Africa. With an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes, he still holds a 38 percent stake in Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and owns a third of EcoCash, Zimbabwe’s leading mobile money platform. But it’s his work at Cassava Technologies that signals his next act, one focused on digital inclusion, data sovereignty, and tech-driven development on the continent.
As global interest in AI intensifies, Masiyiwa’s vision positions Africa as a serious contender in shaping the future of artificial intelligence, bridging the digital divide and creating infrastructure that enables African nations not just to compete but to lead.
By offloading his final stake in Netflix, Masiyiwa appears to be making a clear strategic statement: the future he’s betting on isn’t in Silicon Valley, it’s in Africa.
