Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang urged Kazakhstan to develop its own AI computing capacity during a discussion with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev in Astana on 23 October. Huang cast the country as a future supplier of computing power to Europe, according to a press release published by CBN. The discussion took place at the alem.ai International AI Center during Huang’s first visit to Kazakhstan, Astana Times reported.
Key points
- Huang argued that Kazakhstan should operate national AI infrastructure and retain control of its data.
- An Ekibastuz computing project envisages power capacity of up to 1 gigawatt, developed in phases.
- Reports describe the project’s June agreements differently: as a US$10 billion plan and as agreements worth up to $10 billion.
- Huang rejected concerns about an AI investment bubble, while Citadel founder Ken Griffin warned that the sector was “almost certainly” in one.
Huang’s case for Kazakh computing
Huang told Madiyev that countries should control their own data and have the capacity to run AI systems suited to their languages and national requirements. Asked about Kazakhstan developing its own large language models, he called that capacity “a national security concern”, The Astana Times reported. He welcomed Kazakh-language models and said open-source technology could help the country build them without creating every underlying component itself.
Kazakhstan could “transform the energy into intelligence and export intelligence” rather than simply export energy, Huang said, according to the South China Morning Post. The country has an estimated 25.6 billion tonnes of coal reserves, according to US Energy Information Administration figures reported by the publication. Huang’s proposed export depends on a different use for those energy resources: supplying electricity to computing facilities.
Huang said Kazakhstan was “going to be a hub, a computing hub, an AI factory hub for all of Europe”, according to the CBN press release. He argued that national AI infrastructure should sit alongside power grids and telecommunications networks, with foreign technology supplementing domestic capacity. The proposition gives governments a reason to buy computing infrastructure even where their immediate aim is to develop local systems rather than sell capacity abroad.
In Astana, Madiyev also raised physical AI, which brings AI into robotics and other systems that act in the physical world. Huang identified mining, agriculture, logistics and energy as fields in which Kazakhstan could develop and train such systems, The Astana Times reported. That ambition reaches beyond hosting machines for customers elsewhere: it calls for developers in Kazakhstan to use the infrastructure to build applications of their own.
Ekibastuz’s planned 1-gigawatt site
Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz was among the largest infrastructure projects presented to Huang during the visit, DKNews reported. Kazakhtelecom is building the planned computing cluster with Nvidia and US-based AI cloud firm Firebird as technology collaborators, according to the CBN press release. The site is designed for phased expansion to as much as 1 gigawatt. Capacity in its initial 215 MW phase is already fully reserved, the release said.
The accounts of the project’s June arrangements differ. Kazakhstan announced a “US$10 billion plan” involving Nvidia and Firebird, the South China Morning Post reported. Kazakhstan signed agreements “worth up to $10 billion” with the two companies, according to the CBN press release. The South China Morning Post said the project envisages around 100,000 Nvidia GPUs and reported Madiyev’s estimate that the hub could eventually bring in at least US$3 billion a year from computing exports.
The capacity target is distinct from power available to operate a computing site. The DKNews account of the visit described the planned 1-gigawatt capacity as a long-term target rather than operational capacity. It also identified reliable electricity, cooling and high-speed connectivity as requirements for developing the Ekibastuz site. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned in April that unreliable grids, limited international connections and regulatory barriers could constrain Central Asia’s digital plans, the South China Morning Post reported.
A separate project is taking shape in Astana. Freedom Holding Corp. agreed with Kazakhstan’s AI ministry in November 2025 to develop a $2 billion Sovereign AI Hub using Nvidia infrastructure, according to the CBN press release. Freedom is its principal financing and implementation partner. Freedom is building the Akashi data centre site in Astana for up to 100 MW of capacity, and its chief executive, Timur Turlov, said its first Nvidia B300 cluster would launch in 2027 as a GPU cloud service for firms and software engineers.
Nvidia’s demand case meets bubble warnings
The spending plans sit alongside disagreement over demand for AI computing. Citadel founder Ken Griffin warned on 21 October that the sector was “almost certainly” in a bubble and raised the possibility that excess computing hardware would depress prices and returns, the South China Morning Post reported. Huang told CNBC on 22 October that demand for specialist AI cloud providers remained “off the charts”. He argued that insufficient working capital, rather than insufficient demand, was constraining growth.
Kazakhstan has pursued AI relationships on both sides of the US-China divide. It joined the US-led Pax Silica initiative, which addresses AI supply chains, energy, chips and data centres, in June, then became a founding member of the China-backed World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation the following month, according to the South China Morning Post. Nvidia has also pursued national AI projects in Europe: AI Affairs reported on a declaration with Germany to develop industrial AI models.
Kazakhtelecom plans to install more than 1,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs in the Ekibastuz region in 2027, according to the CBN press release. Its first 50 MW facility at Data Center Valley is due to open in June 2027.
