Jensen Huang on first Kazakhstan visit: the country can be 'an AI factory hub for all of Europe'

On his first visit to Kazakhstan on 23 October, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in Astana that the country is 'going to be a hub, a computing hub, an AI factory hub for all of Europe', and could 'transform the energy into intelligence and export intelligence' rather than only exporting energy. The visit coincided with US AI cloud startup Firebird signing an investment agreement with the Kazakh government; Nvidia said Firebird has a US export licence for 45,000 Grace Blackwell GPUs and is building the first phase of Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz with Kazakhtelecom, targeting commercial launch in Q3 2027, with potential capacity of about 500 MW. The project builds on accords worth up to $10 billion signed in June; the Carnegie Endowment has warned grids and connectivity could constrain Central Asia's plans.