Huang outlines Kazakhstan’s ambitions to become an AI computing hub for Europe

Astana, Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan wants to become a major hub supplying Europe with artificial intelligence computing and infrastructure, NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang said on Friday. Huang, who is also the company’s chief executive, was making his first visit to Central Asia as Kazakhstan pursues domestic AI capabilities and seeks to sell computing power internationally.

Computing cluster under development

Speaking at the alem.ai International Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Astana, Huang linked Kazakhstan’s ambitions to Data Center Valley (DC Valley), an AI computing cluster being built in Ekibastuz in north-eastern Kazakhstan. He described the country’s goal as becoming a computing and AI factory hub serving all of Europe.

His remarks came in a fireside discussion with Zhaslan Madiyev, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister and minister of artificial intelligence and digital development. The event brought Kazakhstan’s AI Month programme to a close. Huang had toured the centre earlier that day.

“Kazakhstan is the first country I’ve visited where the president declared AI development a national priority,” Huang said.

Domestic capacity and international markets

The conversation centred largely on AI’s role as infrastructure for the economy, rather than merely a set of applications or digital tools.

Huang said countries should not send their data abroad and then buy AI systems built elsewhere from that same information. He argued that domestic AI infrastructure should have a foundational role comparable to power grids, telecoms networks and the internet. Technology from abroad, he said, should supplement national capabilities instead of displacing them.

Kazakhstan’s strategy seeks to extend that approach throughout Central Eurasia, shifting the region away from buying overseas technology and towards producing AI systems for international markets. The plan depends on greater computing capacity, the development of engineering talent and support for domestic technology businesses.