Uzbekistan's president cites $8bn of projects in a Karakalpakstan AI and data centre zone

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on 19 September that six projects worth a total of $8 billion will be carried out in a special zone created for artificial intelligence and data centres in Karakalpakstan, and told officials to provide investors with a stable 1 GW power supply, according to the presidential record of a meeting in Nukus. The record gives no data centre capacity, no developers and no completion dates.

The meeting, held to set tasks for the region's development, instructed officials to prepare a five-year programme and to provide investors with the 1 GW supply. The record sets two targets: 1,500 well-paid jobs within three years in Nukus, Kungrad, Karauzyak and Takhiatash, and annual exports of cloud technology and AI services of $600 million. It says the Kungrad-Karauzyak-Takhiatash axis is to become a "green industrial corridor", which it calls a triangle of the intellectual economy.

Gazeta.uz, which reported the remarks on 20 September, gave the same figures and named no companies. Neither account says how the $600 million export target was derived or from what base.

The projects named a day earlier

At a launch ceremony on 18 September, the president's office said projects with Chinese partners in Kungrad and Takhiatash districts cover the production of digital currency and the creation of AI data centres, at a total cost of $2.281 billion. The same record says a data centre will also be built in Takhtakupyr district, and that the first stage of a $150 million modular intelligent computing centre run by an enterprise called Linkwise has been launched in Takhiatash district. It does not name the Chinese partners, give the capacity of any facility or say how the $2.281 billion divides between digital currency and data centres.

By Corridor Signal's arithmetic, the $2.281 billion and $150 million figures add up to $2.431 billion, about 30 per cent of the $8 billion cited for the zone. Neither record says whether those projects are among the six, and the $8 billion is not itemised.

Power and context

The 18 September record also reports that construction of a 1.5 GW wind power plant in Kungrad district, a $2.6 billion project with the Saudi company ACWA, has entered its active phase. It lists 1,500 km of high-voltage lines and three new 500 kV substations as part of it. In Karauzyak district, two wind plants with a combined 300 MW and a 100 MW storage system have been commissioned.

Neither record says that either project is meant to supply the data centre zone, or how, when and at what tariff the 1 GW would be delivered. The rated capacity of a wind plant is not the same as the firm supply a computing campus needs, and the documents do not address how variable output would be managed.

The statement is one of several in recent weeks that tie Uzbekistan's data centre plans to power supply. On 22 September the digital ministry said Uztelecom's new data centres in Bukhara and Kokand connect to TAS-IX, the national traffic exchange point. On 8 October Mirziyoyev proposed that Central Asia and Azerbaijan start building a common computing infrastructure based on an interconnected network of national data centres. On 16 October the presidential record said reliable power supply must be arranged in advance for industrial plants and data centres, and Gazeta.uz reported that a map of grid connection capacity is due by 1 March 2027.

What to watch

• the five-year programme, and whether it states data centre capacity in megawatts;
• whether the developers and Chinese partners behind the $2.281 billion of projects are named;
• whether the wind and storage projects are formally tied to the zone's 1 GW commitment.