Kazakhstan lures Telegram, Google and EPAM to open their branch offices in Astana

Kazakhstan is in negotiations with Telegram, TON, Tether, Google, EPAM and other international IT companies about opening their representative offices in Astana. These companies are expected to carry out R&D activities and develop new products there, the press service of the president reported.

The country’s authorities have already selected the venue for these offices which will likely be located within the new international artificial intelligence (AI) center AlemAI, planned to open at the Nur Alem Sphere — a former EXPO 2017 pavilion.

Presenting the new center’s concept to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Minister of Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev also announced that two IT schools will be established at AlemAI: Tomorrow School and Tumo Education. As a result, more than a thousand students will have an opportunity to learn programming, robotics and other IT disciplines. The center is expected to train 1,000 specialists annually and will serve as a hub for startup acceleration and support for IT research projects.

The Ministry highlighted the following startups as examples:

• Cybernet, a company specializing in the development and implementation of voice bots for customer communication;
• Arlan Biotech, a startup working in the fields of immune therapy and diagnostics;
• Higgsfield AI, a company that has created an advanced system to help scientists and engineers conduct machine learning projects.

The center also showed Tokayev domestic developments in the field of AI: a digital twin of mineral deposits, drone control and an industrial robot dog.

«AlemAI International Center must become the epicenter of the AI movement in Kazakhstan and a symbol of its digital transformation. This platform will unite the brightest minds in the country and attract talent from around the world. The center will feature research and development laboratories, a programming school and offices of international technological companies. Astana Hub and AlemAI should evolve into a true innovation factory, drawing international specialists, boosting scientific research and creating solutions for key sectors of the economy, education and social spheres,» Tokayev said.

The president has instructed the cabinet to establish the AI development council featuring top international experts and to attract major international companies to construct data centers.

«An example of an integrated approach in this sphere is the KazLLM national language model. We have taught AI to think, analyze and speak the Kazakh language. This remarkable milestone paves the way for the development of the Kazakh language in the digital environment,» Tokayev highlighted.

Furthermore, the president assigned to implement the AI-Sana program focusing on training AI specialists.