The Week in Kazakhstan: Bubble Wrap

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Astana on October 23 for a meeting with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.During the conversation, Huang revealed Nvidia’s investment of an undisclosed amount of money into AI video company Higgsfield, Kazakhstan’s first unicorn startup.The tech executive also praised Tokayev for “declaring Kazakhstan [to be] and AI nation,” and suggested that the country should stop “just exporting energy,” and “export intelligence,” describing a way by which Kazakhstan could use its energy resources to power AI computing infrastructure, such as data centers.Huang and Tokayev.Photo from akorda.kz EconomyKazakhstan’s Central Bank cut interest rates by half a percentage point on October 23, citing slower inflation.The new base rate was set to 15.75%. The regulator said that “annual inflation has been falling for the 12th consecutive month, amounting to 9.3% in September.” Kazakhstan’s Baiterek Holding, a state-owned asset manager, signed on October 22 a memorandum to build a multifunctional terminal at the port of Kuryk, in cooperation with China’s Guoyou Materials Group.The $1 billion investment project aims to expand capacity at the port on the Caspian Sea.The Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) registered a new lender, Tansar Islamic Bank, on October 16.Tansar will have to secure a banking license with Kazakhstan’s regulators before it can operate as a bank.Yeszhan Birtanov, previously deputy chairman of the Central Bank and head of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), was listed in Tansar’s board of directors.An affiliated company, Tansar Capital, has been operating in the securities market since 1995.