Astana, January 28, 2026 — The Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) at Nazarbayev University took part in the official presentation of the Kazakhstan AI Country Report, the country’s first comprehensive analytical overview of the artificial intelligence ecosystem.
The report presentation was held at Astana Hub Event Hall and brought together representatives of government bodies, international and local technology companies, the corporate and quasi-public sectors, the venture capital community, industry experts, and specialized industry media.
During the event, ISSAI and its flagship Kazakh-language large language model, KazLLM, were presented as part of Kazakhstan’s national AI infrastructure and research ecosystem. The report highlights the growing role of academic research centers in supporting sovereign AI development, talent formation, and applied AI adoption.
Both ISSAI Founding Director, Dr. Huseyin Atakan Varol, and ISSAI Executive Director, Mr. Yerbol Absalyamov, were featured in the report as expert contributors, sharing insights on the structural conditions required for sustainable AI growth in Kazakhstan.
Dr. Huseyin Atakan Varol emphasized the importance of strengthening the link between research and industry:
“While Kazakhstan ranks among the top 50 economies as an emerging middle power, its research and development (R&D) expenditure as a share of GDP remains disproportionately low. Such resource constraints risk slowing the trajectory of the nation’s AI sector. The government should cultivate a competitive ecosystem through targeted subsidies that incentivize private-sector collaboration with academia, positioning research as a strategic pillar of technological sovereignty and economic development.”
Mr. Yerbol Absalyamov highlighted the need for more efficient use of national computing infrastructure:
“Establishing an effective mechanism for GPU cluster utilization would significantly accelerate local AI development. While GPUs are heavily used during daytime hours, much of this capacity remains idle overnight. Providing startups and academic institutions with access during off-peak hours would maximize public computing resources and speed up the training of local AI models and applications.”
The Kazakhstan AI Country Report presents key findings on government strategy, computing infrastructure, human capital, venture investment, startup development, and sectoral AI adoption. According to the report, AI venture investments in Kazakhstan increased more than fivefold between 2023 and 2025, exceeding USD 73 million, and AI is expected to contribute an additional 0.5–2% to annual GDP growth through productivity gains.
The full version of the Kazakhstan AI Country Report is available in English, Kazakh, and Russian at: https://www.rise.com.kz
ISSAI’s participation in the report and its presentation underscores the institute’s role in shaping Kazakhstan’s AI research agenda, advancing sovereign AI technologies such as KazLLM, and contributing expert knowledge to national and international policy discussions.