NVIDIA and US-based AI infrastructure company Firebird are expanding Kazakhstan AI infrastructure, with plans for tens of thousands of GPUs, new data centre capacity and the 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 begun constructing the first phase of its installation at Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz, in partnership with Kazakhtelecom. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2027. The announcement coincides with NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to Kazakhstan on 23 October 2026. Huang met President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana and participated in a discussion with Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev, the country’s minister of artificial intelligence and digital development. Kazakhstan AI infrastructure moves towards deployment According to NVIDIA’s announcement , Firebird intends to develop a second phase that could bring its total AI infrastructure capacity in Kazakhstan to approximately 500 MW. The broader Data Center Valley development has a longer-term expansion target of 1 GW. Kazakhstan’s government previously announced agreements valued at $10 billion with Firebird and NVIDIA, including plans for a computing cluster containing up to 100,000 GPUs. These figures represent different stages and scopes of the development rather than capacity already installed. Construction updates published by Kazakhstan’s government in August confirmed that work was under way on an initial 50 MW facility. A 215 MW electrical substation had also been acquired, with the first facility expected to enter operation in June 2027. Separately, Kazakhtelecom has already deployed 400 NVIDIA H200 GPUs and 480 NVIDIA B300 GPUs across Astana and Almaty. During 2027, the telecommunications operator plans to install more than 1,000 additional GPUs at Data Center Valley, together with deployments exceeding 1,000 Vera Rubin GPUs in the Ekibastuz region. The Vera Rubin architecture combines next-generation GPUs with NVIDIA’s Vera CPU and high-bandwidth memory in rack-scale computing systems. As previously reported by eeNews Europe , NVIDIA began supplying customer samples of Vera Rubin hardware earlier this year, ahead of broader deployments. From computing capacity to AI applications The investment extends beyond data centre construction. Firebird plans to establish Firebird Labs Kazakhstan, providing local startups and researchers with access to computing resources, funding and research partnerships. NVIDIA also announced an investment in Higgsfield, a Kazakhstan-founded company developing generative AI tools for video and image production. The investment amount was not disclosed. Higgsfield intends to expand its computing capacity using Vera Rubin infrastructure supplied through cloud service providers. During his visit, Huang discussed the possibility of using Kazakhstan’s energy resources to support AI computing services for international customers. Madiyev also outlined the government’s interest in developing Kazakh-language models and applying AI to manufacturing, mining, agriculture and logistics. Energy availability remains central to the economics of the project. Kazakhstan’s government has identified competitive electricity costs and access to existing power infrastructure as advantages for the Ekibastuz development, although the proposed expansion will require substantial additional generating and distribution capacity. The Kazakhstan AI infrastructure programme consequently involves several separate commitments: operational GPU clusters, facilities currently under construction, future hardware deployments and a much larger proposed expansion. Firebird’s first commercial launch in 2027 will provide an initial indication of how quickly these plans can be converted into available computing capacity. The post NVIDIA expands Kazakhstan AI infrastructure with Firebird appeared first on eeNews Europe