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Kazakhstan’s AI ecosystem is moving from infrastructure plans to deployment. The shift is visible across the full AI stack — from infrastructure to models to applications. The announcements below — coinciding with a visit to Astana by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang — point to the nation’s increasing supply of accelerated computing, along with its growing demand for what comes next. On Friday, Oct. 23, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang visited Astana, meeting with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Akorda Presidential Palace and joining Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev — Kazakhstan’s minister of AI and digital development — for a public fireside chat at the Alem.AI program. Jensen Huang and Kazakhstan’s AI Minister Speak at Alem.AI In their fireside chat at Alem.AI, Kazakhstan’s international center for artificial intelligence, Madiyev and Huang discussed the country’s push to become an AI nation — building the energy and computing infrastructure to support homegrown AI and applying it across the economy. Madiyev said Kazakhstan wants AI that reflects its language and culture. “We want AI that understands and speaks Kazakh and captures cultural contexts and cultural specifics,” he said, describing the country’s work on Kazakh-language models. Huang said Kazakhstan could turn its energy resources into a foundation for AI production — and a new kind of export. “Instead of just exporting energy, in the future, you could transform energy into intelligence and export intelligence,” he said. He also argued that local data is central to that ambition: it embodies a country’s culture, history and values. “Your country’s data is your natural resource. It belongs to you.” The conversation also turned to physical AI. Madiyev pointed to Kazakhstan’s factories, mines, agriculture, transport and logistics as potential areas for development, asking how the country could become a hub for training models for robots and other physical systems. Huang called the idea “fantastic,” saying physical AI could transform industries from mining and mineral processing to agriculture. Huang said AI and robotics can help people do more, but ambition will shape how fully they seize that opportunity. He applied the idea to Kazakhstan, saying AI could help lift the country and its people. “If you have ambition, and I believe you do, AI will lift your nation,” Huang said. “AI will lift your people.” Huang also praised the founders of Higgsfield AI, the Kazakhstan-founded startup, and it was announced NVIDIA is making an investment into the startup during the event. “The first thing and the last thing is you invest in people, not companies,” he said, describing the founders as visionary and pointing to their effort to compete globally. Asked about AI security, Huang said the technology must be developed and deployed responsibly. He described NVIDIA’s OpenShell as a way to contain AI agents by limiting their access to files and tools and monitoring their activity. For young people entering a fast-changing field, Huang recommended learning how AI works — not just how to use it. He said aspiring AI programmers should understand the technology’s principles, strengths and weaknesses, combining technical knowledge with the ability to work effectively with AI. “I envy being 18 years old today… because the world is changing so rapidly, and there’s a complete reset because of technology.” The Infrastructure Layer Is Scaling The visits coincided with a signing ceremony marking Firebird’s investment agreement with the government of Kazakhstan, held at the presidential palace. Building on its first AI factory in Armenia, Firebird is expanding into Kazakhstan, where it has secured a U.S. export license for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs. The first phase is under construction with Kazakhtelecom at Data Center Valley, targeting commercial launch in the third quarter of 2027. A planned second phase would bring Firebird’s total potential AI infrastructure capacity in Kazakhstan to approximately 500 megawatts. Firebird also plans to establish Firebird Labs Kazakhstan to support local AI startups, research and talent development through funding, access to compute and research partnerships. Firebird cofounder and CEO Razmig Hovaghimian attended the signing ceremony at the Akorda Presidential Palace alongside government officials. “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. “President Tokayev’s vision gave us the confidence to think bigger about what we can build together. With Jensen Huang here today, that ambition feels more tangible than ever. We’re building the infrastructure for Kazakhstan’s talent and ideas to reach the world.” Kazakhtelecom, the nation’s largest telecommunications company, has already deployed 400 NVIDIA H200 and 480 NVIDIA B300 GPUs in Astana and Almaty. Next year, the company plans to deploy more than 1,000 GPUs in the Data Center Valley, along with more than 1,000 NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs in the Ekibastuz region, serving diverse workloads with infrastructure that enterprises, developers and institutions can use at scale. An Honorary Black Belt for Huang At the end of their meeting President Tokayev presented Huang with the Order of Dostyk, First Class, for his contribution to the development of artificial intelligence in Kazakhstan. Dostyk means friendship and the Order honors peace, friendship and cooperation. Later that day, also at the Akorda Presidential Palace, the president of the International Judo Association presented Huang with an honorary black belt in Judo. The belt, embroidered in gold stitching, was a special thanks for Huang’s support of Kazakhstan’s AI ambition and for leadership aligned with the spirit and rigor of the martial art. AI-Native Companies Scale With Compute And that development is accelerating. The nation’s AI-native companies are also building out their compute capacity — and the applications that run atop them. Higgsfield is expanding its AI infrastructure with NVIDIA Vera Rubin running on cloud service providers, giving the company additional capacity as models, products and customer demand for its generative media applications grow. inDrive and Pony.ai are also collaborating to explore robotaxi services in Kazakhstan, with Astana as the first deployment city. The companies will assess the feasibility of bringing Pony.ai’s seventh-generation robotaxis to the inDrive app, supported by NVIDIA AI infrastructure, built on the NVIDIA Hyperion sensor and compute platform with the NVIDIA Halos safety system. More local capacity gives developers and companies room to train, fine-tune and serve increasingly capable models. Successful applications, in turn, create demand for more compute. Kazakhstan’s AI opportunity isn’t defined by GPU counts alone. Connecting that infrastructure with developers, universities, startups and industries can turn accelerated computing into useful applications. That was at the core of the discussion the NVIDIA team had with hundreds of developers from across Kazakhstan during a reception later in the evening. The gathering in this self-proclaimed AI nation was inspiring because of the ideas shared, the clear drive to build and a collective ambition to share it with the world. Today’s announcements represent different layers of the AI stack in Kazakhstan— infrastructure deployment, access to compute and AI-native product development — where the AI foundation is reaching new scale. Watch the fireside chat between Jensen Huang and Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev, streamed live from Alem.AI in Astana. Watch NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC Berlin keynote in replay.
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