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Jensen Huang's first Kazakhstan visit seals deal: Firebird wins US export license for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited Kazakhstan for the first time on Oct 23 and met President Tokayev; Firebird secured a US export license for 45,000 Grace Blackwell GPUs to build a data center valley in Ekibastuz with Kazakhtelecom, targeting commercial operation in Q3 2027, alongside a ~$10B AI infrastructure package.
Why it matters
This is the first large-scale US export license for advanced AI chips granted to a Central Asian country: 45,000 Grace Blackwell GPUs would make Kazakhstan the region's biggest AI compute hub overnight, extending NVIDIA's "sovereign AI" map from the Middle East and Europe into Central Asia.
Huang met President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev the same day and attended the signing ceremony at the presidential palace, signaling a state-level strategic partnership rather than a routine commercial purchase.
Full report
NVIDIA's official blog announced on Oct 23 that CEO Jensen Huang made his first visit to Kazakhstan and held talks with President Tokayev. Firebird signed an investment agreement with the Kazakh government that includes a secured US export license for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs.
Phase one will be built with state telecom operator Kazakhtelecom as a "data center valley" in Ekibastuz, targeting commercial operation in Q3 2027.
The Kazakh government also announced a roughly $10 billion AI infrastructure package covering data centers, energy and talent programs. TokenPost's independent reporting corroborated the figure and meeting details.
Notably, while US export controls on advanced GPUs to China and some countries keep tightening, Kazakhstan's license for 45,000 latest-architecture GPUs shows Washington now values its "middle corridor" geopolitical position in the US-China tech contest.
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