The event was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev, heads of government agencies, and international members of the Council, including Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of Sinovation Ventures and 01.ai, among others.

Nurlan Zhakupov, Chairman of the Management Board of Samruk-Kazyna, addressed the meeting.

“The key question today is no longer whether AI will transform economies, but how quickly countries can adopt it to remain competitive,” he said.

“As Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, managing more than $88 billion in assets across key sectors — including energy, logistics, telecommunications, mining and others — we intend to seize this opportunity. Our goal is not only to implement artificial intelligence technologies, but to scale their use across all our companies,” he added.

Each AI initiative implemented within the Fund is aimed at delivering tangible results — higher productivity, lower costs and measurable financial impact.

“We have cascaded KPIs across all portfolio companies to achieve a 5% increase in EBITDA in 2026 specifically through AI tools and technologies. The Group’s total EBITDA is projected to reach $11 billion in 2026, including a targeted 5% uplift directly driven by AI adoption,” Zhakupov said.

To support this, the Fund is leveraging its proprietary Al Farabium supercomputer, with plans to nearly triple its capacity.

For example, KazMunayGas is implementing a comprehensive AI approach across the entire value chain — from exploration to digital twins and predictive analytics. As a result, by 2030, oil production is expected to increase by an additional 2.8 million tonnes, generating more than $700 million in economic impact. AI has already been deployed to enhance industrial safety across all major companies.

By 2027, up to 70% of management and operational decisions across the Group are expected to be made using AI. More than 250,000 employees have already completed basic AI training, and each employee can create their own AI agents based on Kai-Fu Lee’s platform to address practical business tasks. An AI hackathon has also been held, where dozens of such agents were developed — reflecting the emergence of a new digital culture within the Group.