Kazakhstan’s planned Data Center Valley is taking shape around 45,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GPUs, but the project still has two large questions to answer: where the electricity will come from, and who will pay to use the computing. The details sharpen the scale of a venture that could make the country a regional AI hub, or leave it with an exceptionally ambitious power bill.
NVIDIA Watch analysis
What happened
The Diplomat reports that Firebird, a US cloud operator, signed an investment agreement with Kazakhstan’s government for the Data Center Valley project. The site is planned for Ekibastuz, beside the country’s largest power plant. Under the reported arrangement, 10 per cent of Firebird’s total GPU capacity will go to Kazakh companies and government agencies; the rest is intended for international customers, none of whom have been publicly identified.
The report says the project is part of a $10 billion package of agreements announced in June involving Firebird and state-owned Kazakhtelecom. Kazakhtelecom is to provide power, cooling and telecommunications infrastructure, while Firebird is set to finance the computing hardware. Kazakhstan has broken ground on the campus, which it hopes will eventually reach one gigawatt of computing capacity.
Why it matters
This is a concrete test of the “sovereign AI” pitch: a country wants to turn energy and infrastructure into computing capacity, while a cloud operator plans to sell that capacity beyond its borders. Local access is part of the plan, but the reported 10 per cent allocation leaves most of the project dependent on international demand.
The power question is not a footnote. The Diplomat says Kazakhstan has imported electricity to cover shortfalls, and cites an expert who argues the campus’s first phase could consume more power at full capacity than the country’s planned increase in generation. The report also notes that the project’s energy self-sufficiency target has slipped to early 2028, after the campus is supposed to open.
Our read
The project now has a striking hardware figure and a clearer picture of who may get to use the capacity. It does not yet have publicly identified international customers, and the electricity timetable looks uncomfortable. Nvidia’s chips may be the most visible part of the plan, but a data centre needs power and paying users as well as GPUs. Even the most impressive shopping list has to plug in somewhere.
What to watch
- Whether Firebird identifies international customers for the planned capacity.
- Whether Kazakhstan can add dependable electricity before the campus is due to open.
- How the 10 per cent local allocation will be divided among companies and public institutions.
- Whether the stated investment, construction and operating timelines become more specific.
Discussion spark: Should Kazakhstan reserve more of the planned computing capacity for local users, even if that makes it harder to attract international investment?
Sources and evidence
- The Promise and Pitfalls of Nvidia’s Venture in Kazakhstan – The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine (30 October 2026, 05:01 UTC)
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