Kazakhstan has attracted NVIDIA and Firebird for $10 billion — what does this mean for the country

Who signed and what exactly

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov. Attendees included NVIDIA Vice President Rev Lebaradyan, Firebird co-founders Razmik Ovakyamyan and Alexander Esayan, Vice Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiev, Board Chairman of Kazakhtelecom Bagdat Musin, and the US Ambassador to Kazakhstan Julie Staft.

As a result of the meeting, two documents were signed.

The first is an agreement on strategic cooperation between the Ministry of AI and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Firebird. It solidifies agreements on the development of the AI ecosystem and the creation of Firebird Labs Kazakhstan based on Alem.ai.

The second is an agreement between KZ-TT TELECOM LLP and Firebird, defining the technical and organizational parameters of joint work in the "Data Center Valley."

What is the "Data Center Valley" and what will be built there

The project is being implemented in Ekibastuz, Pavlodar Region. Currently, 300 MW of capacity is available, with plans for phased expansion up to one GW. For $10 billion, a computing cluster will be created based on 100,000 of the latest GPU chips, including NVIDIA GB300 and Vera Rubin. This is one of the largest projects of its kind in Central Asia.

Key advantages of the site include a large land reserve, competitive electricity costs, and high project scalability.

Olzhas Bektenov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Our goal is to create a platform for hosting global digital infrastructure. We highly value the agreements reached with our partners from Firebird and NVIDIA.

Zhaslan Madiev, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of AI and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Investments totaling $10 billion will enable the creation of a large-scale computing cluster based on 100,000 of the latest GPU chips. According to our estimates, the implementation of the project will generate no less than $3 billion in export revenue annually.

Razmik Ovakyamyan, CEO of Firebird
When we first visited Kazakhstan, it quickly became clear to us that the country's ambitions, know-how, and talent are of world-class standards. The launch in 2027 will make Kazakhstan one of the top ten leading countries in the world.

Rev Lebaradyan, Vice President of NVIDIA
Kazakhstan has energy. Since you have an abundance of it and can produce even more, you are an excellent place to start.

What this means for the country

Own high-performance infrastructure opens up opportunities for Kazakhstan to attract investment, localize digital services, train engineering personnel, support startups, and expand cloud solutions within the country. 

Board Chairman of Kazakhtelecom, Bagdat Musin, emphasized that the goal is to form one of the largest digital clusters in Eurasia in Kazakhstan.

Source: primeminister.kz