Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, on October 2 unveiled an artificial intelligence-based member of its board of directors, complete with voting rights.

The Samruk-Kazyna Artificial Intelligence Neural Network, known as SKAI, was introduced to the country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, on October 2 during the Digital Bridge 2025 international tech forum held in Astana. One of the guests, Telegram cross-platform founder Pavel Durov, used the event to announce the creation of a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory in Kazakhstan.

SKAI will participate in the next Samruk-Kazyna board meeting under a testing regime. It is billed as marking a significant shift in corporate governance in which AI is embedded directly into board-level decision-making. Samruk-Kazyna, which has assets running to tens of billions of dollars, claims the system will raise both transparency and the quality of decision-making at the fund.

SKAI will analyse and synthesise a wide range of information, including internal and external regulations, as well as board records dating back to 2008. Data-backed AI insights will be presented to directors to inform strategic direction.

“Setting of an AI-based neural network in the Board of Directors is a quantum leap: technology and people are starting to make decisions together, and digitalisation goes beyond processes and becomes part of the management philosophy,”said Nurlan Zhakupov, chairman of the management board at Samruk-Kayna, a major shareholder in companies including KazMunayGas, Kazakhtelecom, Kazatomprom, Air Astana, Kazpost and Samruk-Energy.

SKAI has been built with an emphasis on sovereignty and security. It operates on the AlFarabium-2 supercomputer, which belongs to Kazakhtelecom, a company within the Samruk-Kazyna portfolio. No data that it processes will be transferred abroad.

The infrastructure is powered by NVIDIA H200 processors.

The system runs on Alem, a Kazakh-language large language model (LLM).

Tokayev said at Digital Bridge 2025 that Kazakhstan is seeking to transform itself into a fully digital state within three years.

Addressing political leaders, entrepreneurs and technology specialists from more than 100 countries, Tokayev called for AI to be developed responsibly and inclusively.

“Our task is to harness new technologies for the benefit of humanity, turning them into a key factor in progress and cooperation,” said Tokayev.

Kazakhstan lately established a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development. The creation of the Central Asian country’s first AI Council, and the passage of a dedicated law on AI have also been announced.

A forthcoming “Digital Code” will, said Tokayev, provide the legal framework for digital governance, education, healthcare and the economy.

Tokayev argued that digitalisation and the deployment of neural networks should underpin public administration in the years ahead. He highlighted SKAI as an example of Kazakhstan’s capacity for regional innovation.

The president, meanwhile, described as “historic” the decision to set up Kazakhstan’s first university dedicated to AI research. He also announced the launch of the Alem.ai International Centre for Artificial Intelligence, envisaged as a global hub for ethical AI and innovation, as well as plans for a second national supercomputer cluster to advance research and development.

“Alem.ai will become a place where artificial intelligence technologies are implemented as effectively and ethically as possible,” Tokayev said, emphasising that the ultimate goal was to safeguard human well-being.

Telegram AI lab

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov addresses the forum.

The dedicated AI laboratory announced by Telegram’s Durov will be located in the Alem.ai building, Forklog reported. It will form part of the company’s wider collaboration with Kazakhstan’s supercomputing infrastructure.

“A year ago, we opened our first regional office in Kazakhstan and are very pleased with the results. I am delighted to announce that today we are launching a specialised artificial intelligence laboratory in the Alem.ai building,” Durov said.

Telegram has recently been developing technology at the intersection of blockchain and AI, added Durov, saying it was designed to allow more than one billion people to access AI services in a manner that is “confidential, transparent and efficient.” The initiative is expected to rely on Kazakhstan’s national high-performance computing resources.

“We hope that the Kazakh supercomputer cluster will become the first major provider of computing power for this network,” Durov noted. Telegram’s mini-applications will be the initial users of the new AI functions.