Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang has visited Kazakhstan for the first time, saying the Central Asian country could emerge as a major AI computing hub for Europe.
Huang made the remarks during a fireside chat with Zhaslan Madiyev, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, at the Alem.ai International Artificial Intelligence Centre in Astana.
During the discussion, Madiyev said Kazakhstan plans to nearly double its installed power capacity to more than 40 gigawatts by 2035 as the country expands the infrastructure needed to support its growing AI sector.
One of its flagship projects is the Data Center Valley, a large-scale AI computing campus under development in Ekibastuz, one of Kazakhstan’s main power-generating centres. Its first 50-megawatt phase is expected to begin operations in 2027, while the project’s energy infrastructure could eventually scale up to one gigawatt.
Huang said Kazakhstan’s energy resources and growing computing capacity could give the country a significant role in Europe’s AI ecosystem.
“Kazakhstan has a lot of real estate. It also has a lot of energy,” Huang said. “You’re going to have a lot of compute right here in Kazakhstan. It’s going to be a hub, a computing hub, an AI factory hub for all of Europe.”
Huang described the country’s abundant energy resources as a potential competitive advantage in the AI economy, arguing that electricity could increasingly be used to generate computing power and AI rather than simply being exported as energy.
“Kazakhstan has a fundamental advantage because you have so much natural resource already. You have so much energy, and instead of just exporting energy in the future, you could transform the energy into intelligence and export intelligence,” Huang said.
Sovereign AI
But energy alone, Huang argued, will not be enough. Kazakhstan will also need to retain control over another resource — its data.
Madiyev said the country is already developing Kazakh-language large language models based on open-source foundation models and asked whether Kazakhstan should eventually build its own foundation model from scratch.
Huang said building a domestic foundation model “makes complete sense”, describing it as a national security concern.
He argued that countries should retain control over both their data and the AI infrastructure used to serve their citizens, comparing it to other essential national infrastructure.
“In the future, you will have your own electric grid, your own internet, your own telecommunications and your own intelligence grid,” Huang said.
The potential of Physical AI
Beyond computing infrastructure and sovereign AI, Kazakhstan is also looking to position itself in the emerging field of Physical AI — systems that can interact with and operate in the physical world.
Pointing to Kazakhstan’s industrial base in mining, agriculture, transport and logistics, Madiyev asked whether the country could become a hub for developing and training Physical AI models and robots. Huang called the idea “fantastic”, saying these industries could be among the first to benefit.
“Physical AI is not just robotics,” Huang said. “It includes everything from seismic understanding to mapping mines and wells, to understanding geography and geology — where to mine, how best to mine — understanding material science, the processing of chemicals.”
With the technology still at an early stage, Huang said Kazakhstan has an opportunity to help shape the emerging industry.
Investing in AI startups
The discussion also turned to Higgsfield AI, a Kazakh-founded generative video startup in which Nvidia has invested.
Asked what attracted Nvidia to the company, Huang said the decision ultimately came down to its founders.
“The first thing and the last thing is you invest in people, not companies,” Huang said, describing Higgsfield’s founders as “visionary” and capable of competing with leading AI companies globally.
Huang also pointed to the company’s presence in both Kazakhstan and the United States, saying it could help bridge the two ecosystems.
Later that day, Huang met President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who described the development of artificial intelligence and digitalisation as a national priority.
“This visit is very important for us in terms of giving a serious boost to cooperation with Nvidia,” Tokayev said.
Huang welcomed Kazakhstan’s ambition to become an “AI nation” and said the country had the potential to become a global hub for Physical AI.
Huang’s first visit to Kazakhstan came at the close of AI Month, a nationwide initiative launched in September as part of the country’s Year of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.