NVIDIA CEO Huang backs Kazakhstan’s plan to become an AI hub — Cyprus Mail

NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang, during his first visit to Central Asia, backed Kazakhstan’s plan to become a center for computing capacity and artificial intelligence infrastructure. At a meeting at the alem.ai international artificial intelligence center in Astana, he said the country aims to become a computing and AI hub for Europe, Cyprus Mail reports.

Data centers for the international market

The key project is the Data Center Valley cluster, which is being built in Ekibastuz in northeastern Kazakhstan. It is being developed by national telecommunications operator Kazakhtelecom with technological participation from NVIDIA and U.S. cloud AI solutions company Firebird.

The first 50-megawatt facility is scheduled to open in June 2027. The site is then to be expanded in stages to one gigawatt. The capacity of the first 215-megawatt phase has already been fully reserved. In June, Kazakhstan signed agreements related to the project with NVIDIA and Firebird worth up to $10 billion.

Kazakhtelecom also plans to install more than a thousand NVIDIA Vera Rubin graphics processors in the Ekibastuz area next year.

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Investment and training specialists

In November 2025, Freedom Holding Corp reached an agreement with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development to create a $2 billion Sovereign AI Hub based on NVIDIA infrastructure. The project is allocated 100 megawatts of electric power, and the holding acts as its main partner for financing and implementation.

In Astana, Freedom is building the Tier IV Akashi data center, designed for capacity of up to 100 megawatts. The holding’s head, Timur Turlov, said the company will soon complete the order for its first computing cluster using NVIDIA B300 chips. Its launch as a public GPU cloud for businesses and developers is planned for 2027.

Robotaxis and startups

During the visit, the use of AI in robotics, industry, energy and transport was also discussed. The companies inDrive and Pony.ai are exploring the possibility of launching a robotaxi service in Astana using NVIDIA’s autonomous driving platform.

NVIDIA also joined an extension of the Series B funding round for AI video platform Higgsfield, one of whose founders is Kazakh engineer Yerzat Dulat.