Kazakhstan Signs Preliminary Deals for 480 MW at Data Center Valley, Targets 1 GW by 2029

Kazakhstan has lined up preliminary agreements with Gaw Capital, Boosteroid and Firebird for 480 megawatts of second-phase computing capacity at its Data Center Valley project in the Pavlodar region, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov's office said on Nov. 6, 2026. The capacity covered by those agreements could expand to 620 MW, and the government said it is negotiating with three more companies for another 240 MW as it works toward a 1-gigawatt campus by 2029.

Project background

Data Center Valley is Kazakhstan's flagship attempt to turn cheap land, available grid power and a cool continental climate into an export business for computing capacity. State telecom operator Kazakhtelecom is the domestic anchor, and the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development oversees the program. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared 2026 the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, and the government adopted its Digital Qazaqstan national strategy in June.

The project took shape on June 15, 2026, when the government, Firebird and NVIDIA signed a package of agreements the government valued at $10 billion. That package included a strategic cooperation agreement between the digital ministry and Firebird and a binding term sheet between Kazakhtelecom and Firebird. The government said at the time that the cluster would hold 100,000 GPUs, including NVIDIA GB300 and Vera Rubin chips, and that 300 MW of power was available, with phased expansion to 1 GW.

At an Aug. 13 review, the government described a 50 MW first facility and said it had acquired a 215 MW substation for the site. The Nov. 6 update lists the first facility at 68 MW and keeps its commissioning in the second quarter of 2027. In October, Firebird received a U.S. export license for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs, according to NVIDIA, clearing a key hurdle for the hardware the second facility will need.

Industry implications

The new agreements matter because they move Data Center Valley beyond a single anchor tenant. Until now the project's commercial story rested largely on Firebird and NVIDIA. Adding Gaw Capital, a Hong Kong-based real estate and infrastructure investor, and Boosteroid, a cloud gaming provider, points to two different demand profiles: capital looking for data center assets and a latency-sensitive streaming service that needs compute close to users in Central Asia and nearby markets.

The phrase "preliminary agreements" deserves weight. The government did not disclose investment amounts, lease terms or timelines for the 480 MW, and none of the second-phase partners has published its own announcement. Until those deals become binding contracts, the second phase is a pipeline, not a construction program.

The first phase is more concrete. Three dated commissioning targets across 2027 give investors and suppliers a schedule to measure against, and the 164 MW Firebird building is the largest single block. If it starts on time in the third quarter of 2027, Kazakhstan would have one of the largest AI computing sites between Europe and East Asia.

Competitive and supply chain implications

For GPU and server suppliers, Data Center Valley is a test of whether U.S. export licensing can support large AI deployments in countries outside the main cloud markets. Firebird's license covered a defined GPU volume, and any expansion to the 480 MW or 620 MW scale would likely require further approvals. The presence of China Energy among the companies in talks adds another layer, since U.S. export licenses for advanced GPUs typically carry conditions on who can access the hardware.

Power and cooling equipment makers also have a stake. The Pavlodar region hosts Ekibastuz, home to some of the largest coal-fired power stations in the former Soviet Union, and Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov and regional governor Asain Baikhanov reported on power and utility provision at the meeting. A gigawatt of data center load would require dedicated transmission, substations and backup systems, much of which is typically imported.

Regional rivals are moving too. Gulf states, Malaysia and India are all courting the same hyperscale tenants and GPU allocations. Kazakhstan's pitch rests on lower power costs and land availability, but it must compete on connectivity and on the regulatory certainty that large tenants demand.

Regional implications

For Central Asia, the project is the most visible bid to build a digital export industry alongside oil, gas and metals. The meeting also reviewed progress on a third supercomputer cluster, and the government has been promoting a Cloud First policy, previously described as a data embassy model that would let foreign states store data in Kazakhstan while keeping legal sovereignty over it.

The Pavlodar region stands to gain construction work, utility upgrades and skilled operating jobs, although the government has not published employment figures for the campus. The heavy reliance on coal power in the region could also draw scrutiny from tenants with carbon commitments, a factor that may shape how future capacity is supplied.

What comes next

• Commissioning of the first 68 MW data center, targeted for the second quarter of 2027.
• Launch of the 164 MW Firebird AI data center, targeted for the third quarter of 2027.
• Commissioning of the 72 MW third facility, targeted for the fourth quarter of 2027.
• Conversion of the Gaw Capital, Boosteroid and Firebird preliminary agreements into binding contracts with disclosed terms.
• Progress on talks with Aleria, Energy Capital Global and China Energy toward the 1 GW target for 2029.

Sources

• Prime Minister of Kazakhstan: Olzhas Bektenov holds meeting on the implementation of the Data Center Valley project (Nov. 6, 2026)
• Prime Minister of Kazakhstan: Government, Firebird and NVIDIA sign package of AI agreements (June 15, 2026)
• Prime Minister of Kazakhstan: Olzhas Bektenov reviews progress of Data Center Valley project (Aug. 13, 2026)

Image: Kazakhtelecom data center in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan (illustrative; not the Data Center Valley site), by Djenalinov via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and edited by Credence Research.