First in the region
Central Asia's first AI hub will be opened in Dushanbe with the assistance of the US company NVIDIA
First in the region
In the near future, an artificial intelligence hub (AI hub) will begin operations in Dushanbe at the Area AI platform, with the American corporation NVIDIA providing support to local authorities in implementing the large-scale project. This will be the first facility of its kind in Central Asia.
The presentation of the innovative AI hub took place yesterday at the Embassy of Tajikistan in Berlin. The event was attended not only by representatives of NVIDIA, but also by their competitors from Armada, VEON, DataVolt, Perplexity, and Supermicro, which are involved in the development of the IT industry and, in particular, artificial intelligence.
Ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan to Germany Imomuddin Sattorov emphasized that the launch of the project will help achieve the goals of the UN General Assembly resolution on the role of AI in the sustainable development of Central Asia, which was adopted last July at the initiative of President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.
In turn, Azizjon Azimi, Chairman of the AI Council under the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, reported that an ecosystem will be formed on the basis of Area AI, one of the tasks of which will be the implementation of advanced innovations into large-scale industrial initiatives.
Management of the AI hub was entrusted to Zehnlab.ai, whose developments include a language model that allows working with artificial intelligence in the Tajik language. Currently, the company, together with NVIDIA, is developing the hub's technical program. It is based on foundational and language models, synthetic data generation technologies, GPU-based computing infrastructure utilizing hydropower, as well as solutions for education, the public sector, finance, and other areas.
In addition, the hub will connect the Area AI platform in Dushanbe with a physical AI laboratory being established on the territory of the future industrial AI park in Khujand. This laboratory will be the first in Central Asia to develop physical artificial intelligence based on the experience of NVIDIA corporation projects. This approach will combine education and research with technology testing at industrial facilities.
It is already known that the first project will be the application of AI in the mining industry, specifically in ore sorting—separating material containing minerals from waste rock. In the future, there are plans to use "smart" technologies for three-dimensional mapping and robotic exploration of hazardous and hard-to-reach areas.
The Area AI platform was opened in Dushanbe in January of this year. The innovative AI hub will be the next stage of its development, bringing together universities, developers, startups, and industrial enterprises for training, research, and AI implementation in Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries.
By the way, regional neighbors are also developing artificial intelligence. For example, Kazakhstan is preparing to launch Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz. A platform with an AI infrastructure capacity of 1 gigawatt is being created there. The first project is planned to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2027. Investments amount to $5 billion, and the republic's partners in this endeavor are Firebird AI and NVIDIA.
The authorities of Uzbekistan intend to create a special technological zone for artificial intelligence and data centers in Karakalpakstan. In particular, this involves 6 projects worth $8 billion requiring a stable power supply of at least 1 GW. In addition, the Saudi company DataVolt is constructing a data center in Tashkent, with construction costs reaching $150 million.