Tajikistan unveils Central Asia’s first AI hub with NVIDIA support

Photo: NVIDIA

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 24. Tajikistan has introduced a plan to create Central Asia’s first Innovation Hub of Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI Innovation Hub). The hub is being developed in Dushanbe through the Area AI platform, with support from NVIDIA, a U.S. technology company.

According to the Embassy of Tajikistan in Germany, the project was presented on October 21 at the Tajik Embassy in Germany during the international NVIDIA GTC Berlin 2026 conference.

People who attended the event included Shilpa Kolhatkar, NVIDIA’s Global Head of AI Nations, and representatives from technology companies such as Armada, VEON, DataVolt, Perplexity, and Supermicro.

Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Germany, Imomuddin Sattorov, said that developing artificial intelligence is one of the country’s main government priorities.

He said that creating the hub with NVIDIA’s support would help meet the goals of a United Nations General Assembly resolution on how artificial intelligence can support sustainable development in Central Asia. The resolution was adopted in July 2025 at the suggestion of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

Azizjon Azimi, Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Council under Tajikistan’s Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, explained the plans for the hub. These include training specialists with NVIDIA’s help and bringing Physical AI technologies into the country’s industrial sector.

The new hub will bring together universities, developers, startups, and industrial companies. They will use it to provide training, carry out research, and put artificial intelligence technologies to practical use. The hub is being developed and managed by zehnlab.ai, one of the founders of the Area AI consortium. The Artificial Intelligence Council under the ministry is providing official support.

The plan also includes setting up a Physical AI Lab in Khujand. The lab will study and test these technologies for use in industry, including mining.

In 2022, Tajikistan became the first country in Central Asia to adopt a National Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy. The new hub is the next step in developing the Area AI platform. It aims to create more opportunities for training workers, conducting research, and using AI technologies in practical ways in Tajikistan and across the region.