EDB commits $31.2m to Akashi data center in Astana

The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will provide $31.2 million in financing to Akashi Data Center for a facility in Astana, Kazakhstan, the bank announced this week. The agreement anchors a wider project valued at $354 million.

The financing supports one of the largest digital infrastructure builds in Central Asia now under development, and signals a development-bank push into non-resource sectors of the Kazakh economy.

What will the campus include?

The site covers 11 hectares. Plans call for:

• 100MW of total planned capacity
• More than 4,200 racks
• 55,000 sqm (592,015 sq ft) of floor space
• Tier IV-quality design standards

The first phase, allocated approximately 10MW, is scheduled to launch in 2027. That places Akashi among a small group of hyperscale-grade projects in the region moving from financing to construction on a fixed timeline.

In short: a $354m campus, funded in part by a multilateral lender, with its first compute online in 2027.

Why did the EDB back the project?

Sergey Ignatov, EDB senior managing director, tied the loan to Kazakhstan's national digital strategy.

"Akashi Data Center supports Kazakhstan's strategic focus on developing its digital economy and artificial intelligence," Ignatov said. "Building modern data storage and processing infrastructure will expand opportunities for the digital transformation of businesses and help strengthen Kazakhstan's position as a regional technology hub."

The EDB, founded in 2006, is a multilateral development bank investing across Eurasia. Its portfolio counts more than 348 projects with total investment of $221 billion. The Akashi facility adds data infrastructure to that mix.

The takeaway: the bank frames data centers as strategic infrastructure, not speculative real estate.

Can Kazakhstan export digital infrastructure?

Vladislav Minkevich, chairman of the management board of Akashi Data Center, positioned the project as an export play rather than a domestic capacity build.

"Kazakhstan can become not only a consumer but also an exporter of digital infrastructure," Minkevich said. "The EDB's participation in the project represents an investment in a new area of non-resource exports, where Kazakhstan will be able to compete for international customers on the strength of the quality and reliability of its technology infrastructure."

The claim rests on the campus's Tier IV-quality specification — the highest tier in the Uptime Institute classification — which the company argues can attract international workloads seeking reliability guarantees.

The bet: quality of infrastructure, not proximity to end users, wins international customers.

What happens next?

Construction proceeds toward the 2027 launch of phase one at roughly 10MW. The remaining ~90MW of planned capacity will follow in later phases, funded within the $354 million overall investment envelope.

For the EDB, the $31.2 million commitment represents a fraction of its $221 billion portfolio but a concrete entry into Central Asian data infrastructure.

First compute in Astana is three years out.