Firebird secures US export licence for Kazakhstan Blackwell deployment
Firebird says it has secured a US export licence for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs for the first phase of an AI data centre development in Kazakhstan.
The company announced the licence on 23 October. Phase one is under construction with Kazakhtelecom at Data Center Valley, with commercial operation targeted for the third quarter of 2027. Firebird puts the estimated investment at US$5 billion and describes a cluster with potential capacity of up to 109 MW using more than 45,000 GB300 GPUs.
A proposed second phase would bring its potential capacity in Kazakhstan to approximately 500 MW. That remains a development plan; the first phase itself is still being built.
The announcement sits alongside a separate Kazakhtelecom compute programme described by NVIDIA. The operator already has 400 H200 and 480 B300 GPUs in Astana and Almaty. It plans more than 1,000 additional GPUs at Data Center Valley next year, as well as more than 1,000 Vera Rubin GPUs at Ekibastuz.
NVIDIA’s description of those installations gives a different delivery scale and timetable from Firebird’s 2027 construction project.
At least 10% of GPU capacity is to be allocated to Kazakhstani companies and government agencies. Firebird also plans Firebird Labs Kazakhstan to support local research, training and investment.
Sources
Image: Image supplied with Firebird’s Kazakhstan announcement. Image source.
