At the session of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, the issue of innovation development in the country was discussed.

As noted by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhaslan Madiyev, the development of the industry is structured along four key areas: stimulating productive innovations, implementing solutions in the subsoil use sector, developing the ecosystem through the Astana Hub platform, and forming a cluster.

The key institution for the development of innovative entrepreneurship remains Astana Hub. The platform implements acceleration programs, including AI’preneurs, aimed at launching startups in the field of artificial intelligence — from the idea stage to attracting investment. Since September 2024, three streams of the program have been conducted, resulting in the creation of 35 AI startups.

In cooperation with the Astana city administration, the Astana Innovations Accelerator program is being implemented, focused on integrating startups into the urban environment and bringing them to commercial contracts. Following the selection process, 8 projects received funding.

In 2025, residents of Astana Hub created more than 32,500 jobs. IT service exports are carried out by 537 companies to 111 countries worldwide. The total export volume reached 328 billion tenge, which is 44% higher than the 2024 figure.

Kazakhstan is forming the Exponential Cluster — a flagship innovation platform where science, technology startups, and industry operate within a single ecosystem. A network of technology centers is already being established at the cluster in the following areas: Robotics, DroneTech, GameDev, Cybersecurity, MedTech, AgriTech, Industry 4.0, and Cybersport.

Projects have already been implemented at the Robotics Center for controlling a humanoid robot via a teleoperator and integrating it with a language model for interaction with visitors.

“In the Drone Center, the creation of a Phygital arena and infrastructure for training UAV operators is nearing completion. Also, a humanoid robotics laboratory has been launched at the Robotics Center: technologies for teleoperation and integration with the Alem LLM language model for user interaction have been implemented,” the Minister emphasized.

The launch of all centers is planned to be completed this year. In the future, the cluster will ensure the annual launch of up to 500 startups, including more than 100 hardware projects. The Exponential Cluster will become a center of attraction for innovations and will ensure the launch of up to 500 startups annually.

Special attention is being paid to the development of unmanned technologies. Kazakhstan plans to launch an experimental project for autonomous vehicles with the participation of international technology companies. The project implementation timeline is the second quarter of 2026.

The country is already building the necessary infrastructure for implementing technological solutions. A pilot project for drone delivery is being implemented as part of a private initiative, which will allow testing of new models of urban mobility and logistics.

#Artificial intelligence #Digitalization #Innovation

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