Baku ID 2026 festival opens at SABAH.city, ASAN AI Hub at 50 AI solutions

Azerbaijan's Baku ID 2026 innovation festival opened on 17 September at the new "SABAH.city" campus in Baku, where Azerbaijan's Minister of Economy, Mikayil Jabbarov, told the opening ceremony that "human resources and talent are the greatest capital" for economic development, according to Trend. The chief executive of a private financial holding also addressed the ceremony, describing AI as "an initiative related to talent and human potential" rather than a purely technological one. The two-day festival, organised by the SABAH.HUB Innovation Center, runs 17–18 September, Trend reported.

The campus behind the festival

"SABAH.city," where the festival is being held, had its first phase opened by President Ilham Aliyev on 14 September 2026, according to Trend and en.apa.az (APA), both citing Azerbaijan's Presidential Press Service:

• The project is planned to cover 20 hectares; the first phase covers more than 5 hectares and 20,000 square metres of built-up space.
• The campus's ASAN AI Hub has presented 50 artificial intelligence solutions to date and has partnerships with eight Azerbaijani universities plus Tsinghua University, the University of Oxford and Boğaziçi University.
• The "INNOLAND" incubation centre there has supported 150 startups; four startups have been acquired by foreign investors.
• The campus is designed for more than 1,500 students from three Baku universities, with capacity for about 3,000 daily visitors once fully operational.

Soltan Bayramov, deputy chief executive of the Centre for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), said SABAH.HUB's opened building is "just the first phase," with three more planned, Trend reported.

Why it matters

The 14 September campus opening put a dated, public benchmark — 50 AI solutions, 150 incubated startups — on a state-linked AI hub that had previously only been announced in general terms. It signals Azerbaijan is trying to pair its AI Strategy for 2025–2028 with physical infrastructure and university partnerships, not just policy documents.

What it means for Azerbaijani companies

SABAH.city's coworking space and 22 office units for technology firms offer a concrete entry point to a stated aim of Azerbaijan's AI Strategy for 2025–2028 — training a qualified workforce for the AI industry — as summarised by aze.media. Firms with international partners should note the hub's academic links to Tsinghua University, Oxford and Boğaziçi University as a possible channel for collaboration.