NVIDIA and Firebird expand AI data centre plans in Kazakhstan

NVIDIA and US-based AI infrastructure company Firebird are expanding AI infrastructure in Kazakhstan, with plans for tens of thousands of GPUs, new data centre capacity, and deployment of NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin platform. Firebird has secured a US export licence for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs and has started building the first phase of its facility at Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz, working with Kazakhtelecom, with commercial operations planned for the third quarter of 2027.

The announcement coincided with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's visit to Kazakhstan on October 23, where he met President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and discussed AI plans with Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev. According to NVIDIA, Firebird intends to build a second phase that could bring its total capacity in Kazakhstan to about 500 MW, within a broader Data Center Valley site that has a longer-term target of 1 GW. Kazakhstan's government had previously announced $10 billion in agreements with Firebird and NVIDIA covering a cluster of up to 100,000 GPUs, though these figures span different stages of the project rather than capacity already installed.

Kazakhtelecom has already deployed 400 NVIDIA H200 and 480 B300 GPUs across Astana and Almaty, and plans to add over 1,000 more GPUs plus more than 1,000 Vera Rubin GPUs during 2027. NVIDIA also announced an undisclosed investment in Higgsfield, a Kazakhstan-founded generative video and image AI company, and Firebird plans to launch Firebird Labs Kazakhstan to give local startups and researchers access to compute and research partnerships.

Why it matters

It shows how AI infrastructure buildouts are extending into new countries, tying local energy and telecom capacity to global GPU supply.

Source: eeNews Europe