The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and AKASHI Data Center PLC have agreed on financing terms for a major infrastructure project. The parties signed a memorandum of cooperation during the EDB’s Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Almaty, the company announced.
The memorandum was signed by Sergey Ignatov, senior managing director at the EDB, and Vladislav Minkevich, head of AKASHI Data Center PLC.
First phase backed by $90 million in financing
The project will receive $90 million in financing to build the first module of a high-tech data center.
According to the company, the facility will be Kazakhstan’s first data center to meet the Tier IV standard for reliability and fault tolerance established by the Uptime Institute. The project’s design documentation has already received Tier Certification of Design Documents (TCDD) approval.
According to Minkevich, the project is intended to serve as a digital infrastructure platform for businesses, government agencies and international technology companies.
“The EDB’s support will enable the implementation of the first module of the project and the creation of capacity in Kazakhstan that meets the highest international standards for data center reliability and fault tolerance. This will create additional opportunities for the development of digital services and artificial intelligence within the country, as well as create conditions for hosting the infrastructure of international technology companies,” he said.
Growing demand for data infrastructure
Ignatov said demand for data storage and processing capacity across the region is growing rapidly, driven by the expansion of cloud services, digital platforms and artificial intelligence applications.
The first module will have an installed power capacity of 10 megawatts (MW) and accommodate 520 specialized server racks.
Construction of the first module represents the initial phase of a broader digital infrastructure project. Total long-term investment in the technology campus is expected to reach $350 million.
Regional hub for critical IT infrastructure
AKASHI Data Center is the largest commercial data center currently under construction in Kazakhstan and will become Central Asia’s first Tier IV-certified facility. The campus is designed to host critical IT infrastructure, cloud services, artificial intelligence applications, financial platforms and government information systems.
Under the project’s current specifications, the facility will consist of four buildings with a combined power capacity of up to 100 MW and space for 4,224 server racks. Tier IV certification requires infrastructure availability of 99.995%, full redundancy of utility systems and the ability to perform maintenance without disrupting operations.
