Uzbekistan data-centre commitments pass $6bn

Uzbekistan says investment commitments for new data centres now exceed $6bn (€5.3bn), as the country tries to build domestic computing capacity for AI rather than rely mainly on overseas infrastructure. The push was a central theme at ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026 in Tashkent, where technology companies, investors, startups and policymakers gathered.

A government computing cluster using Nvidia technology launched this summer and reached 90% utilisation within its first month, according to the Ministry of Digital Technologies. Saudi-based DataVolt is developing a 12-megawatt data centre in Tashkent, with the first phase expected to be operational by the end of 2026 and financing of up to $150mn (€131.4mn) from international lenders. The project is ultimately planned to reach 300 megawatts, while Shanghai LinkWise Data Intelligence is developing another large data-centre project in Karakalpakstan.

The government says more than 100 AI projects are being developed under its national strategy, including public-service tools, document-analysis systems, mining drones and robotics with metallurgical companies, and an Uzbek-language corpus for large language models. More than 20 AI laboratories are also planned at universities by the end of the year.

Startup activity points to growing commercial momentum, with 180 startups using AI already exporting to 80 countries, according to Oxford Insights CEO Richard Stirling. Researchers warned that affordable access to computing power remains limited for startups and smaller companies, leaving some dependent on international cloud providers.