On Friday, Oct. 23, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang visited Astana to meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Akorda Presidential Palace, marking developments in Kazakhstan’s artificial intelligence ecosystem as agreements and deployments expand domestic compute capacity and infrastructure.
Infrastructure Expansion at Data Center Valley
The visit coincided with a formal signing ceremony for an investment agreement between Firebird and the government of Kazakhstan. Firebird is expanding its AI infrastructure footprint into the country after establishing its first AI factory in Armenia. The company has secured a U.S. export license for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs. Construction is already underway with Kazakhtelecom at Data Center Valley, with a commercial launch slated for the third quarter of 2027.
A planned second phase could push Firebird’s total potential AI infrastructure capacity in Kazakhstan to approximately 500 megawatts. Firebird also intends to establish Firebird Labs Kazakhstan to support local startups, research initiatives, and talent development through targeted funding, direct compute access, and research partnerships.
“What began as a seed of an idea 180 days ago has grown into a major investment in Kazakhstan’s AI future,” said Razmig Hovaghimian, co-founder and CEO of Firebird, pointing to President Tokayev’s vision as the catalyst for the buildout.
Meanwhile, Kazakhtelecom, the nation’s largest telecommunications company, has already brought 400 NVIDIA H200 and 480 NVIDIA B300 GPUs online across Astana and Almaty. Next year, the company plans to deploy more than 1,000 additional GPUs in Data Center Valley, alongside a deployment of over 1,000 NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs in the Ekibastuz region to handle diverse enterprise workloads at scale.
Kazakhstan Builds AI Models Reflecting Local Culture
During a public fireside chat at the Alem.AI program alongside Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev—Kazakhstan’s minister of AI and digital development—Huang and Madiyev discussed the nation’s strategy to build an energy-backed AI economy. Madiyev said the country must develop native capabilities that reflect local linguistic and cultural frameworks.
“We want AI that understands and speaks Kazakh and captures cultural contexts and cultural specifics,” Madiyev said, detailing ongoing work on Kazakh-language models.
Huang argued that the country’s extensive energy reserves could serve as raw material for a new kind of export economy. “Instead of just exporting energy, in the future, you could transform energy into intelligence and export intelligence,” Huang noted. He also stressed that local data constitutes a sovereign resource that embodies a nation’s history and values.
The discussion also turned toward industrial automation and physical AI. Madiyev pointed to local manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and logistics as prime sectors for deployment. Huang endorsed the direction, suggesting that physical AI could transform heavy industry and mineral processing. During the event, NVIDIA also confirmed an investment in Kazakhstan-founded startup Higgsfield AI, whose founders Huang praised for their ambition to compete on the global stage.
Scaling the AI-Native Application Layer
Down the stack, domestic AI companies are rapidly expanding their compute footprints. Higgsfield is scaling its infrastructure using NVIDIA Vera Rubin running on cloud service providers to meet growing demand for its generative media products.
In the mobility sector, inDrive and Pony.ai are collaborating to evaluate robotaxi services in Kazakhstan, targeting Astana as their initial deployment city. The companies plan to test Pony.ai’s seventh-generation autonomous vehicles integrated into the inDrive application. This rollout relies on NVIDIA AI infrastructure built on the NVIDIA Hyperion sensor and compute platform alongside the NVIDIA Halos safety system.
At the conclusion of the presidential meetings, President Tokayev presented Huang with the Order of Dostyk, First Class, recognizing his contributions to the development of artificial intelligence in Kazakhstan. Later that day, International Judo Federation Marius Vizer and IJF director of promotion and development Timur Kemell presented Huang with an honorary black belt embroidered in gold stitching in recognition of his leadership.
