Interest in the Astana-based Akashi data center, currently under construction, has exceeded expectations. Before the first module is operational, customers have reserved 61% of projected capacity, equivalent to 3.18 MW.

The pipeline

Among the interested parties exist not only Kazakhstani but also international companies from China and the USA — locomotives of the world IT industry. Per Akashi data, 41 potential client discussions are ongoing, with preliminary agreements already signed among technology corporations across:

  • CDN (content-delivery networks)
  • Cloud solutions
  • Artificial-intelligence workloads

“International companies reserving capacity before a facility launch confirms the high level of trust in the project, and Kazakhstan’s potential as a regional computational-capacity hub. Akashi creates infrastructure ready for world-class cloud and AI-load requirements.” — Vladislav Minkevich, CEO

What 3.18 MW means

3.18 MW is equivalent to roughly 318 racks at 10 kW each, or 159 high-density AI racks at 20 kW. Akashi’s full first-phase capacity is 5.2 MW; reaching 61% reservation pre-commissioning is unusually strong for any new data-center build globally.

Project trajectory

The Akashi project targets 4,200 racks of general availability and 100 MW of capacity, launching in phases. The first stage is planned for year-end, reaching 50 MW. Final Akashi capacity exceeds the cumulative volume of all currently-operating Kazakhstan commercial data centers combined.

Akashi Data Center is designed and constructed per the Tier IV class, guaranteeing maximum fault tolerance — a maximum of 26 minutes of permissible downtime per year.

Tier IV in regional context

The Uptime Institute — the industry-leading worldwide organization — assigns data-center reliability ratings, certifying 3,500+ data centers across 118+ nations. Tier I represents the least productive (highest expected downtime); Tier IV represents the maximum-reliable, near-downtime-free standard.

The Uptime Institute’s current database contains 15 Central Asian-launched certified data centers. All comply with Tier III. Ten data centers are located in Kazakhstan; two each in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan; one in Tajikistan. Importantly, constructed-object certificates — confirming readiness for actual failures — exist for only seven data centers across all of Central Asia (six within Kazakhstan). Only a single regional project has confirmed operational-sustainability-level compliance.

Akashi will be the first Tier IV data center in Central Asia.