Kazakhstan builds a regional AI hub after becoming the second jurisdiction to pass an AI law
Astana Hub has trained 500 people in 18 months and drawn 25,000 applications for free AI training, as Kazakhstan builds a regional AI hub a year after its 2025 AI law, the world's second after the EU's, Al Jazeera reported on 21 September.
Kazakhstan is building a state-backed pipeline of AI training and infrastructure a year after becoming the second jurisdiction in the world, after the European Union, to pass a law regulating artificial intelligence, Al Jazeera reported on 21 September 2026.
What Kazakhstan has built
- President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared 2026 the "Year of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence"; in 2025 the government created a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and approved an action plan through 2029 covering AI literacy, healthcare, public services, tax collection and energy, according to Al Jazeera.
- Astana Hub, described by Al Jazeera as Central Asia's largest innovation cluster, received 25,000 applications for free training in programming and generative AI and accepted fewer than 2%, managing director Valeria Tio told the outlet. Its "Tomorrow School" has trained 500 people in 18 months and opens new admission pools in 12 regions this month, Tio said.
- Nazarbayev University's Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence built MagniSoz, a Kazakh-language AI model launched in December 2024 and deployed locally "to ensure protection of data," executive director Yerbol Absalyamov said.
- The AI law was signed by the president on 17 November 2025 and takes effect from 18 January 2026, EY Kazakhstan confirmed independently.
Open questions
Tlegen Kuandykov of the CAPS Unlock think tank told Al Jazeera the law's "protective language" on human rights lacks clear enforcement, and no public assessment has been published of the environmental impact of new AI data centres, which he said the government plans to cool with immersion systems rather than water.
Why it matters
Kazakhstan's combination of a dedicated AI ministry, a national AI law and a free, government-linked training pipeline gives the Caspian region a working, numbers-backed model of state-led AI development, at a stage where InDrive's Yuri Misnik told Al Jazeera the country is "still far away from becoming a Silicon Valley" but is "becoming a regional AI centre."
What it means for Azerbaijani institutions
Azerbaijan's Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 2025–2028 sets four goals, including training a qualified AI workforce, but — unlike Kazakhstan — has not produced a standalone AI law or published comparable training-throughput figures. Kazakhstan's ministry-level structure and public numbers give Azerbaijani officials tracking the Strategy's implementation a nearby, measurable comparator, and Kuandykov's enforcement and environmental questions are a caution for any similar Azerbaijani data-centre or biometric push.
