Country Overview
Uzbekistan is running a decree-driven AI catch-up strategy that mirrors — and increasingly competes with — neighbouring Kazakhstan's. The foundations were laid under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's broader digital opening: the Digital Uzbekistan 2030 strategy (decree of 5 October 2020), a 2021 presidential resolution (PP-4996) on accelerated adoption of AI that revived the Soviet-era Institute of Cybernetics as the Research Institute for the Development of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AIRI), and the IT Park export machine that grew IT-service exports from under US$1 million in 2017 to roughly US$1 billion a year, with a stated target of at least US$5 billion in IT and AI exports by 2030. The keystone is presidential resolution RP-358 of 14 October 2024, approving the Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies until 2030 — targeting US$1.5 billion in AI-based software and services, 100+ AI projects, more than 15 university AI laboratories by end-2026 and large inflows of foreign investment.
On regulation, Uzbekistan became one of the first countries in the region with binding AI rules — but chose amendments over a standalone code. Law LRU-1115, adopted by parliament in 2025 and signed on 21 January 2026, amends the Law on Informatization and the Code of Administrative Responsibility: it defines AI, mandates labeling of AI-generated content, bars state bodies from making decisions affecting human rights solely on AI-generated conclusions, and introduces administrative penalties for unlawful AI-based processing of personal data — a response to registered AI-related violations nearly tripling from 1,129 in 2023 to 3,553 in 2024. The data-governance backdrop is the 2019 Law on Personal Data (ZRU-547), whose once-strict localization requirement (enforced against foreign platforms from 2021) has since been made more flexible, with Uzkomnazorat as the enforcement authority.
The infrastructure push is the newest layer. In November 2025 Uzbekistan announced a partnership with NVIDIA (AI Centre of Excellence, university supercomputing systems, roughly 1 MW of education/research and government/industry compute clusters targeted for 2026) and launched a tax-free zone in the far-western Karakalpakstan region offering full tax and duty exemptions to 2040 for large AI and data-centre projects. Saudi Arabia's DataVolt is building an initial 12 MW, US$150 million data centre with ambitions toward 500 MW, and in April 2026 officials discussed a 125 MW (expandable to 250 MW) AI data centre with NVIDIA and Firebird. Skills programmes (AI Leaders 2026 with Stanford HAI and OpenAI Academy; mass AI-literacy training) leverage a young population of 9.6 million people aged 14-30. The open questions are familiar for the region: no frontier lab or at-scale sovereign model exists, headline infrastructure is announced rather than delivered, and enforcement capacity for the new AI and data rules is untested.
At a Glance
Overall AI policy direction
State-led AI catch-up: strategy decrees, first AI rules, inward compute investment
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Major AI companies
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Research institutions
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Live debates
- Latest development
- July 17, 2026
- Regulatory approach
- First AI rules via amendments to existing laws (signed January 2026): mandatory AI-content labeling, no solely-AI decisions affecting rights, penalties for AI-based data misuse
- Major AI companies
- Uzum, DataVolt, UZINFOCOM
- Major cloud providers
- Digital-government data centre / national compute (UZINFOCOM), DataVolt (Saudi Arabia), Global hyperscalers (no local regions)
- Leading research institutions
- Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT), New Uzbekistan University, Inha University in Tashkent
- Key ministries
- Ministry of Digital Technologies, Research Institute for the Development of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AIRI), IT Park Uzbekistan +1 more
- Government involvement
- High — presidency and Ministry of Digital Technologies drive the agenda by decree, with IT Park and the AIRI research institute as delivery arms
- Industrial strategy
- IT-service export model (US$5bn by 2030 target) plus a tax-free Karakalpakstan data-centre zone and an NVIDIA infrastructure partnership
- International partnerships
- NVIDIA and Firebird on compute; Saudi DataVolt on data centres; Stanford HAI and OpenAI Academy on skills; research MoU with Kazakhstan's ISSAI
- Primary policy focus
- Building an AI ecosystem by 2030 — compute, university labs and mass skills — while policing AI-enabled data misuse and deepfakes
Current Direction
Tightening
Uzbekistan is layering its first binding AI obligations (content labeling, human oversight of rights-affecting decisions, penalties for AI-based data misuse) on top of an aggressively expansionary industrial policy of tax-free data-centre zones, NVIDIA-backed compute and mass skills programmes. The net direction is a structured tightening in governance terms, in service of a loosening, investment-hungry economic strategy — with enforcement capacity the main unknown.
Recent Developments
Kazakhstan's Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI, Nazarbayev University) and Uzbekistan's AIRI research institute signed a memorandum of understanding to advance AI research and innovation — a notable instance of intra-Central-Asian AI cooperation between the region's two leading state-backed institutes.
2026-07-17Uzbekistan's US$5 billion IT-and-AI export plan gathered momentum: IT Park service exports reached US$191.8 million in Q1 2026 (against roughly US$1 billion annually, up from under US$1 million in 2017), internet penetration hit 89%, and mass AI-literacy programmes reported over 1 million people trained — with Minister Sherzod Shermatov framing the constraint bluntly: 'With AI, you need compute. For compute, you need energy.'
2026-06-30SourceEuronewsMinister of Digital Technologies Sherzod Shermatov discussed building a high-power AI data centre with an initial capacity of 125 MW, expandable to 250 MW, with NVIDIA's VP for Global AI Infrastructure Development Nicolo Caprese and Firebird's leadership — including incentives for siting AI data centres in Karakalpakstan.
2026-04-29The AI Leaders 2026 executive education programme launched with more than 100 executives from over 25 leading Uzbek organisations, delivered with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, OpenAI Academy and Silkroad Innovation Hub — billed as the largest AI leadership programme in the Central Eurasian region.
2026-04-08President Mirziyoyev signed Law LRU-1115, Uzbekistan's first AI-focused legislation. Rather than a standalone AI code, it amends the Law on Informatization and the Code of Administrative Responsibility: defining AI, mandating labeling of AI-generated content, prohibiting state bodies from relying solely on AI-generated conclusions in decisions affecting human rights and freedoms, and introducing administrative penalties for unlawful AI-based processing of personal data — after registered AI-related violations rose from 1,129 in 2023 to 3,553 in 2024.
MajorUzbekistan announced a major AI infrastructure partnership with NVIDIA in Washington, D.C.: an AI Centre of Excellence with faculty training, NVIDIA supercomputing systems for top universities, roughly 1 MW of compute across two clusters (education/research and digital government, healthcare and industrial AI) targeted for 2026, and a US$3 million Industrial AI Centre of Excellence.
2025-11-07SourceIT Park UzbekistanA presidential decree launched a tax-free zone in the Republic of Karakalpakstan for large AI and data-centre projects, offering foreign investors full tax and duty exemptions through 2040 alongside low-cost electricity — conditioned on investors deploying their own capital and adopting energy-efficient solutions including renewables and battery storage.
2025-11SourceEuronewsPresidential resolution RP-358 approved the Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies until 2030, together with a 2024-2026 action plan and a register of state 'big data'. Targets include growing AI-based software and services to US$1.5 billion by 2030, launching over 100 AI projects, creating 15+ university AI laboratories by end-2026 and attracting large foreign investment into an AI ecosystem.
Major
Policy and Regulation
Law LRU-1115 — first AI-focused amendments (informatization and administrative-liability laws)
Signed 21 January 2026, Uzbekistan's first AI legislation amends existing laws rather than creating a standalone AI code. It defines AI, sets general principles and the powers of the authorized state regulator, mandates labeling of AI-generated content, prohibits decisions affecting human rights and freedoms from being based solely on AI-generated conclusions, and adds administrative penalties for unlawful AI-based personal-data processing.
Official text ↗Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies until 2030 (RP-358)
Presidential resolution of 14 October 2024 approving the national AI strategy, a 2024-2026 implementation action plan and a list of state-generated 'big data'. It aims to build legal, technological and economic foundations for AI across the economy and social sphere, with targets including US$1.5bn in AI software/services by 2030, 100+ AI projects and 15+ university AI labs by end-2026.
Official text ↗Law on Personal Data (ZRU-547) and data-localization rules
Adopted July 2019 (effective October 2019), Uzbekistan's data-protection law. A 2021 amendment required Uzbek citizens' personal data to be processed on servers physically located in Uzbekistan — enforced against foreign platforms — though the regime has since been made more flexible, permitting cross-border processing under security and oversight conditions. Uzkomnazorat enforces the law and maintains a register of infringers; the January 2026 AI amendments add AI-specific penalties on top.
Official text ↗Karakalpakstan tax-free zone for AI and data-centre projects
A November 2025 presidential decree created a special regime in the Republic of Karakalpakstan offering full tax and duty exemptions through 2040, low-cost electricity and state-supported infrastructure for large AI and data-centre investments — in exchange for investor capital commitments and energy-efficient design including renewables and battery storage.
Digital Uzbekistan 2030 strategy and 2021 AI acceleration resolution (PP-4996)
The October 2020 Digital Uzbekistan 2030 decree set the umbrella digital-transformation agenda (digital government, infrastructure, IT education and exports). Presidential resolution PP-4996 of 17 February 2021 created conditions for accelerated AI adoption, approved an initial AI development programme and pilot projects, and established the Research Institute for the Development of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AIRI) under the digital ministry.
Official text ↗Research Ecosystem
Uzbekistan's AI research base is small but deliberately state-built. AIRI — the Research Institute for the Development of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence, heir to the Soviet-era Institute of Cybernetics and revived by a 2021 presidential resolution — anchors applied work in computer vision, speech processing and machine learning, and in July 2026 signed a research MoU with Kazakhstan's ISSAI. Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT) hosts an AI department and a new GPU-equipped AI cluster, and develops Uzbek-language models and speech corpora (UzLM, UzRoberta and related NLP resources). The 2030 strategy mandates 15+ university AI laboratories by end-2026 and NVIDIA-supplied university supercomputing, but output remains research-grade — there is no at-scale sovereign LLM comparable to Kazakhstan's KazLLM yet.
Major AI Companies
Uzum
Uzbekistan's first tech unicorn — an e-commerce, fintech and banking ecosystem (Uzum Market, Uzum Bank, Uzum Nasiya, Uzum Tezkor) valued at US$1.5bn after a 2025 Tencent-led round, applying AI/ML across payments, lending and logistics and eyeing an IPO.
DataVolt
Saudi data-centre developer building Uzbekistan's flagship AI-ready data-centre projects — an initial 12 MW, US$150 million facility with staged ambitions toward 500 MW — and partnering with Beeline Uzbekistan on digital infrastructure.
UZINFOCOM
State 'single integrator' for e-government IT, operating core digital-government infrastructure and data-centre capacity that underpins public-sector digitalisation and the national AI compute build-out.
Cloud Infrastructure
- Frontier AI
- No domestic frontier developer
- Compute
- Early national build-out: NVIDIA-partnered clusters (~1 MW) at the digital-government data centre and universities; 125-250 MW and up-to-500 MW data-centre projects are announced or under construction, not yet delivered
- Chip access
- Fully import-reliant with no domestic fabrication; access runs through the NVIDIA partnership and foreign investors, exposed to shifts in US export-control policy
Digital-government data centre / national compute (UZINFOCOM)
State-operated e-government data-centre infrastructure, now hosting NVIDIA-powered AI compute under the November 2025 partnership (roughly 1 MW across education/research and government/industry clusters targeted for 2026).
DataVolt (Saudi Arabia)
Foreign anchor investor in AI-ready data centres — an initial 12 MW, US$150m build with ambitions toward 500 MW, incentivised by the tax-free Karakalpakstan zone.
Global hyperscalers (no local regions)
AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud serve Uzbek workloads from foreign regions; none operates an in-country region, and residual data-localization rules and the new AI amendments shape how regulated data can use them.
Leading Universities
Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT)
Uzbekistan's flagship IT university (named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi), with a dedicated AI department, a new GPU-equipped AI cluster and research on Uzbek language models and speech recognition.
New Uzbekistan University
Tashkent research university founded in 2021 as a flagship of the reform era, focused on engineering, computer science and AI-relevant disciplines with international faculty partnerships.
Inha University in Tashkent
Korean-partnered IT and computer-science university in Tashkent, a significant producer of software-engineering and AI talent for the IT Park ecosystem.
Think Tanks
Center for Economic Research and Reforms (CERR)
Research centre under the presidential administration analysing economic reform, including the digital economy and IT-sector growth that frames Uzbekistan's AI push.
Central Asian Association for Artificial Intelligence
Regional AI association chaired by veteran Uzbek diplomat Vladimir Norov (former SCO Secretary-General), promoting AI literacy and practical adoption across Central Asia.
Silkroad Innovation Hub
Silicon Valley-based innovation hub for Central Eurasian founders and a delivery partner (with Stanford HAI and OpenAI Academy) of Uzbekistan's AI Leaders 2026 executive programme.
Government Institutions
Ministry of Digital Technologies
Lead ministry for digitalisation and AI under Minister Sherzod Shermatov — drives the AI Strategy 2030, the NVIDIA partnership, data-centre investment and IT-export policy.
Research Institute for the Development of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AIRI)
State AI research institute under the digital ministry, established by presidential resolution PP-4996 (2021) on the foundations of the 1960s Institute of Cybernetics; works on computer vision, speech and machine learning and partners internationally (including with Kazakhstan's ISSAI).
IT Park Uzbekistan
State technology park and residency regime powering Uzbekistan's IT-service export model (near US$1bn annually) and increasingly its AI agenda — international partnerships, startup support and the US$5bn-by-2030 export target.
Uzkomnazorat (State Inspectorate for Informatization and Telecommunications)
Enforcement authority for the personal-data regime — inspections, binding orders and the register of infringers of data-subject rights — whose remit now abuts the 2026 AI amendments on unlawful AI-based data processing.
Notable Gaps
No frontier lab or at-scale sovereign model
Uzbekistan has no frontier or near-frontier developer, and unlike Kazakhstan's KazLLM there is no deployed sovereign LLM — Uzbek-language work (UzLM, UzRoberta, speech corpora) remains research-grade; hence frontierDeveloper 'none'.
Announced vs delivered infrastructure
The headline compute story — 125-250 MW NVIDIA-discussed capacity, DataVolt's staged path to 500 MW, university supercomputers — is largely announced or early-stage. Delivered capacity as of mid-2026 is modest (~1 MW-scale clusters), and several claims here rest on state or investor sources.
Untested enforcement and thin regulatory detail
The January 2026 AI amendments are brief compared with comprehensive AI laws; implementing rules, the designated regulator's practice and Uzkomnazorat's enforcement capacity are all unproven, so the gap between rules on paper and practice may be wide.
Limited independent scrutiny
Uzbekistan has almost no independent AI-policy think-tank or civil-society layer; analysis comes mainly from state bodies, law firms and foreign observers, and constraints on media freedom limit domestic debate about AI surveillance and rights.
Key People
Shavkat Mirziyoyev
GovernmentPresident; signed the AI Strategy to 2030 (RP-358), the first AI law (LRU-1115) and the Karakalpakstan tax-free data-centre decree
Republic of Uzbekistan
Sherzod Shermatov
GovernmentMinister of Digital Technologies; chief architect of the AI and IT-export agenda and lead negotiator with NVIDIA, Firebird and data-centre investors
Ministry of Digital Technologies
Farkhod Ibragimov
IndustryCEO of IT Park Uzbekistan, the state tech park driving IT/AI service exports and startup growth
IT Park Uzbekistan
Vladimir Norov
Think tankChairman of the Central Asian Association for Artificial Intelligence; former SCO Secretary-General and Uzbek foreign minister, advocating practical AI literacy
Central Asian Association for Artificial Intelligence
People and Organisations to Follow
Sherzod Shermatov
GovernmentDigital Technologies Minister; the central public voice of Uzbekistan's AI strategy.
IT Park Uzbekistan
CompanyState tech park publishing the steady drumbeat of AI partnership, export and startup news.
Kun.uz (English)
JournalistUzbek news outlet with consistent English-language coverage of AI legislation and digital policy.
The Times of Central Asia
JournalistRegional outlet tracking Uzbekistan's data-centre, AI and digital-economy developments in context.
Current Debates
GovernmentFirst AI law via amendments — light-touch or too thin?
Uzbekistan chose to regulate AI by amending existing laws rather than passing a standalone AI code like Kazakhstan's — a deliberate light-touch bet that draws both praise for pragmatism and criticism for thinness.
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First AI law via amendments — light-touch or too thin?
Uzbekistan chose to regulate AI by amending existing laws rather than passing a standalone AI code like Kazakhstan's — a deliberate light-touch bet that draws both praise for pragmatism and criticism for thinness.
Law LRU-1115 (signed 21 January 2026) delivers targeted obligations: AI-content labeling, a bar on state decisions affecting rights resting solely on AI conclusions, and administrative penalties for unlawful AI-based data processing — a direct response to AI-enabled violations nearly tripling between 2023 and 2024. Supporters argue embedding AI rules into existing law avoids over-regulating a young ecosystem the state is trying to grow. Critics note it leaves large gaps — no risk classification, no algorithmic transparency regime, no independent oversight — and that its effect depends entirely on implementing rules and enforcement practice that do not yet exist. The comparison with Kazakhstan's comprehensive AI law will shape whether Uzbekistan holds this line or legislates further.
InfrastructureKarakalpakstan's tax-free data-centre bet
Uzbekistan is offering full tax exemptions to 2040 and cheap power to turn its far-western Karakalpakstan region into a data-centre hub — an audacious bet in an arid, ecologically stressed region near the Aral Sea.
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Karakalpakstan's tax-free data-centre bet
Uzbekistan is offering full tax exemptions to 2040 and cheap power to turn its far-western Karakalpakstan region into a data-centre hub — an audacious bet in an arid, ecologically stressed region near the Aral Sea.
The November 2025 tax-free zone, DataVolt's staged 500 MW ambitions and the 125-250 MW facility discussed with NVIDIA and Firebird would transform Karakalpakstan into Central Asia's second data-centre cluster after Kazakhstan. Advocates point to cheap energy, land and a government willing to underwrite infrastructure; the decree's conditions on renewables and battery storage acknowledge grid constraints. Sceptics ask whether an energy-importing, water-stressed region bordering the Aral Sea disaster zone can sustainably host gigawatt-era compute, whether the exemptions will produce durable local benefit or an enclave economy, and how much of the announced pipeline will actually be built.
IndustryAI skills at scale vs brain drain
With 9.6 million people aged 14-30, Uzbekistan is betting on mass AI-literacy and elite programmes (Stanford HAI, OpenAI Academy) to power a US$5bn export sector — while trying to keep the talent it trains.
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AI skills at scale vs brain drain
With 9.6 million people aged 14-30, Uzbekistan is betting on mass AI-literacy and elite programmes (Stanford HAI, OpenAI Academy) to power a US$5bn export sector — while trying to keep the talent it trains.
The skills push runs from mass AI-literacy training (over 1 million people reported trained) to the AI Leaders 2026 executive programme with Stanford HAI, OpenAI Academy and Silkroad Innovation Hub, layered on the One Million Uzbek Coders lineage and IT Park's residency incentives. The strategic question is whether Uzbekistan can convert trained people into domestic value — IT Park exports near US$1bn a year suggest the model works for services — or whether global demand for AI talent pulls its best graduates abroad. Uzum's unicorn trajectory offers an anchor for ambitious talent at home, but the ecosystem still leans heavily on outsourcing rather than product or model development.
Knowledge Hub
Official documents
- Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies until 2030 (RP-358) — official text— Lex.uz (National Legislation Database)
- Digital Uzbekistan 2030 — policy initiative profile— OECD.AI
Think tank reports
Interviews
- Interview: Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technologies— The Investor Uzbekistan
GitHub projects
- AIRI.UZ — open-source Uzbek NLP and AI work— AIRI (Digital Technologies and AI Research Institute)
Sources
Deliberately sourced beyond government publications. The bars below show each category’s actual share of this page’s citations — an internal editorial guideline rather than a rigorously derived target, so treat it as a rough steer, not a precise benchmark.
- RP-358 of 14.10.2024 — On the approval of the Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies until 2030GovernmentLex.uz (National Legislation Database of Uzbekistan)2024-10-14
- Presidential Decree 'Approval of the Strategy for Artificial Intelligence Development until 2030' announcedGovernmentMinistry of Digital Technologies (digital.uz)2024-10
- Uzbekistan launches tax-free zone for major AI and data centre projects to attract investorsNewsEuronews2025-11-18
- LRU-1115 of 21.01.2026 — On making additions and changes to certain legislative acts in connection with the regulation of relations arising from the use of artificial intelligenceGovernmentLex.uz (National Legislation Database of Uzbekistan)2026-01-21
- Uzbekistan adopts first AI-focused amendments to information and administrative lawsExpert commentaryDentons2026-01-29
- Uzbekistan tightens oversight of AI with penalties for data misuseNewsKun.uz2026-01-21
- The Republic of Uzbekistan Launches Major AI Initiative with NVIDIAGovernmentIT Park Uzbekistan2025-11-07
- Uzbekistan discussed building an AI data center with up to 250 MW capacity with NVIDIANewsYangi O'zbekiston (yuz.uz)2026-04-29
- The $5 billion AI export plan gathering momentum in Central AsiaNewsEuronews2026-06-30
- Uzbekistan Launches AI Leaders 2026 Program with Stanford and OpenAIGovernmentOutsource.gov.uz (Ministry of Digital Technologies)2026-04
- ISSAI and Uzbekistan's AIRI Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Advance AI Research and InnovationResearchISSAI, Nazarbayev University2026-07-17
- Data protection laws in Uzbekistan — Data Protection Laws of the WorldExpert commentaryDLA Piper2026
- Uzbekistan: New Requirements for Uzbek Citizens' Personal Data Localization Enter into ForceGovernmentLibrary of Congress2021-05
- Digital Uzbekistan 2030 — policy initiativeGovernmentOECD.AI2020
- Resolution PP-4996 'About measures for creation of conditions for the accelerated implementation of technologies of artificial intelligence'GovernmentCIS Legislation2021-02-17
- Uzbekistan's first unicorn, Uzum, leaps to a $1.5B valuationNewsTechCrunch2025-08-05
- Karakalpakstan to Become Data Center Hub Under Uzbekistan's Digital StrategyNewsThe Times of Central Asia2025
- Uzbekistan Launches AI Cluster at Tashkent University to Boost AI Research and InnovationNewsTelecom Review Asia
- Uzbekistan Adopts New Law to Regulate Artificial Intelligence Use Across SectorsExpert commentaryBABL AI2026