A major digital infrastructure project is gathering momentum in Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan, with the potential to transform the industrial city into one of Asia’s leading technology hubs. The Data Center Valley development will occupy 200 hectares and draw power from the region’s extensive electricity network. Its scale rivals that of a major power plant, and investors have already committed $200 million to the project.
The project is being developed by KT-Telecom LLP, jointly owned by Kazakhtelecom and Samruk-Kazyna Invest. The company has launched another yuan-denominated bond issuance on the Astana International Exchange (AIX) worth 594.1 million yuan. The bonds carry a 4.5% annual coupon and mature in five years. Once the current offering is completed, total funding raised for the project will reach $200 million. The company’s registered financing program, however, allows borrowing of up to $1.2 billion through 2043, providing substantial capacity for future expansion.
The planned capacity of the data center will reach 1 gigawatt. For comparison, policymakers in the United States have recently debated restricting the construction of data centers larger than 50 megawatts because of their impact on electricity grids and water resources. The Ekibastuz facility would be twenty times larger, placing it among the largest digital infrastructure projects not only in Central Asia but globally.
The project’s key competitive advantage is the region’s energy infrastructure. Ekibastuz has long served as one of Kazakhstan’s major power-generation hubs, with significant surplus generating capacity. This makes it well suited to hosting large-scale AI computing clusters, thousands of server racks, and massive data-processing workloads without jeopardizing electricity supplies to surrounding communities.
Kazakhstan has already signed agreements with AI startup Firebird to deploy Nvidia-based AI infrastructure in the country. Total investment in Kazakhstan’s AI computing ecosystem is estimated at up to $10 billion, with Data Center Valley positioned as the flagship project of that strategy.
While many Western countries are debating how to curb the rapidly growing energy demands of data centers, Kazakhstan is pursuing the opposite approach—embracing their expansion. Backed by abundant power resources and competitive financing, Ekibastuz is positioning itself as a new destination for large-scale data processing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Source: FinMentor.kz
Image: AI-generated
