Kazakhstan’s technology sector continues to grow at a rapid pace, with the number of registered IT companies surpassing 18,600 by the end of 2024, according to figures from the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry (MDDIAI). This represents a 16% increase over three years, up from about 14,000 firms in 2022. More than 4,000 new IT enterprises have emerged in just two years, underscoring how the country is quickly expanding its presence on the global digital map.
A major driver of this growth has been Astana Hub, Central Asia’s largest technopark for IT startups, which now hosts over 1,700 resident companies. Since its launch in 2018, the technopark has attracted over 336 billion tenge ($624 million) in investments, boosted by state tax incentives totaling 130 billion tenge ($241 million). Kazakhstan has also built a network of 19 regional IT hubs and established international platforms in Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Dubai, and China, broadening the footprint of its technology ecosystem. These moves have positioned the country as a growing player in innovation and digital entrepreneurship within the region.
The financial performance of Astana Hub and its residents highlights the impact of this strategy. In 2024 alone, resident companies generated 620 billion tenge ($1.33 billion) in revenue, accounting for more than half of Kazakhstan’s total IT sector revenue of 1.2 trillion tenge ($2.2 billion). Export earnings from the sector stood at 140 billion tenge ($260 million), reflecting the increasing competitiveness of Kazakhstani IT services abroad. Government plans include raising IT service exports to $1 billion by 2026, supported by programs such as AI’preneurs and the Silk Way Accelerator, operated in partnership with Google. More than 40 Kazakhstani startups have already participated in accelerator programs in Silicon Valley through collaborations with AlchemistX, Draper University, and the Silkroad Innovation Hub.
Kazakhstan is also investing heavily in talent development and artificial intelligence. The Tech Orda initiative is designed to train 100,000 IT professionals by 2025, addressing the demand for skilled workers in the sector. At the same time, the AI Qyzmet program, the first of its kind in Central Eurasia, is equipping civil servants with artificial intelligence skills to modernize public administration. The country’s efforts to build a national AI ecosystem include the Alem.AI International Center for Artificial Intelligence, which will provide research and training opportunities, and AlemLLM, the largest Kazakh-language large language model now accessible to startups, academic institutions, and private companies. In July, Kazakhstan launched alem.cloud, Central Asia’s most powerful supercomputer cluster, designed to support AI development and deployment at scale.
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