When the global AI competition reached the heartland of Central Asia, Kazakhstan chose the coal capital of Ekibastuz as the starting point for its counterattack. Prime Minister Orzas Bektnov recently met with Vice President of Nvidia, LeBaredian, and co-founder of American AI infrastructure company Firebird, Razmik Hovakimian, to conduct in-depth consultations on the construction of national artificial intelligence infrastructure. The core of this meeting is a super project called Data Center Valley.

The blueprint for the transformation from coal-fired power to computing power

2026 has been designated as the year of digitalization and artificial intelligence in Kazakhstan, and the national strategy for digital transformation of artificial intelligence in Kazakhstan was officially adopted this week. The Data Center Valley is the flagship project of this strategy, located in Ekibastuz, with a planned capacity starting from 300 megawatts and expandable up to 1 gigawatt.

Prime Minister Bektnov emphasized that artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure are national priorities, and the project relies on local large-scale land reserves and highly competitive electricity prices to create a global level digital infrastructure platform.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, Zaslin Madiyev, further pointed out that artificial intelligence has become a new infrastructure for the global economy, and Kazakhstan is actively integrating into this wave through the construction of a complete ecosystem of energy, data centers, and advanced technologies.

International giants are not only interested in cheap electricity

Firebird co-founder Razmik Horwamiyan said that Kazakhstan has enormous potential in the field of digital infrastructure, and upon his first visit, he felt the world-class ambition and talent reserves here.

The project is planned to be launched in 2027 and will help Kazakhstan become a leading country in global AI infrastructure. Nvidia Vice President Le Barredian analyzed from a technical perspective that energy is the foundation of AI development, and Kazakhstan's resource endowment gives it the conditions to become an AI computing hub, able to participate in the entire chain from training to inference.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kazakhstan Telecom, Baghdadt Musin, put it more bluntly: The world-class data center being built in Ekibastuz is essentially converting coal into high-tech export services, and the signed international contracts will bring considerable foreign exchange income. Keywords: AI computing hub, AI infrastructure, Kazakhstan

The global AI market is expected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years, and the demand for training computing power will maintain double-digit growth. Kazakhstan is trying to transform its resource advantage into technological advantage and its geographical location into strategic value in this battle for computing power.Editor/Cheng Liting