On February 10, 2026, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence Zhaslan Madiyev detailed plans to establish an international computing hub centered in Ekibastuz, a primary energy production zone in Kazakhstan. The project leverages the region's extensive coal-fired power generation, specifically reserving 300 megawatts of capacity at the GRES-1 power plant. The government has already allocated a land plot and is currently in negotiations with international investors to scale this infrastructure.
The anchor facility for this hub will be a 50 MW AI-focused data processing center being built by national provider Kazakhtelecom, with commissioning scheduled for mid-2027. This facility is designed to be ten times more powerful than the recently launched government supercomputer in Astana. The initiative is part of Kazakhstan's "Affordable Internet" national project, which also aims to connect 3,000 rural settlements to high-speed fiber-optic lines by the end of 2027.
Strategically, Kazakhstan is moving from simple digitalization to the large-scale adoption of AI as a core economic driver. Venture investment in the domestic AI sector has risen fivefold over the past two years, reaching $73 million in 2025. While international platforms like ChatGPT remain dominant, the government is promoting domestic models such as KazLLM, which already serves approximately 600,000 users, and the upcoming Alem LLM. To support global data flows, Kazakhstan is also increasing its role as a transit hub between Europe and Asia, with projects like the Trans-Caspian fiber-optic route and the "West-East" hyper-highway designed to handle significantly more transit traffic.
The anchor facility for this hub will be a 50 MW AI-focused data processing center being built by national provider Kazakhtelecom, with commissioning scheduled for mid-2027. This facility is designed to be ten times more powerful than the recently launched government supercomputer in Astana. The initiative is part of Kazakhstan's "Affordable Internet" national project, which also aims to connect 3,000 rural settlements to high-speed fiber-optic lines by the end of 2027.
Strategically, Kazakhstan is moving from simple digitalization to the large-scale adoption of AI as a core economic driver. Venture investment in the domestic AI sector has risen fivefold over the past two years, reaching $73 million in 2025. While international platforms like ChatGPT remain dominant, the government is promoting domestic models such as KazLLM, which already serves approximately 600,000 users, and the upcoming Alem LLM. To support global data flows, Kazakhstan is also increasing its role as a transit hub between Europe and Asia, with projects like the Trans-Caspian fiber-optic route and the "West-East" hyper-highway designed to handle significantly more transit traffic.