Presight secures $190 million Smart City deal with Astana

Smart city initiative to improve liveability mobility and safety

Feb 17, 2025

Astana City (Image credit: Radis B via Pexels.com)

#UAE #Kazakhstan #smartcities - The municipal government of the City of Astana has signed a $190 million, six-year agreement with Presight, an Abu Dhabi-listed big data and AI company, to implement an AI-powered smart city project. The initiative aims to digitise urban infrastructure, optimise traffic flow, and enhance public services through AI-driven analytics. Kazakhstani companies will be responsible for 60% of the project scope, ensuring local workforce involvement. The initiative follows previous collaborations between Presight and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, Samruk-Kazyna, and Astana Hub. As part of its commitment, Presight is also expanding its Astana office to support regional growth.

SO WHAT? – This deal marks another major step forward in Presight’s business in Kazakhstan. In July 2023, Presight signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Astana City Administration to plan the deployment of smart city solutions and digital infrastructure. Later that year, Presight agreed with the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, to establish a joint venture to accelerate digital transformation in Kazakhstan. Following this, an agreement was signed with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development last year to build a supercomputer and data centre cluster under the new joint venture. The new contract for Astana will see the city’s existing visual data sources unified into a real-time digital twin of the city,

Here are some more details about Presight’s Kazakhstan business:

The City of Astana and Presight have signed a six-year, $190 million agreement to deploy an AI-powered smart city project to digitise urban infrastructure, enhance traffic management, and modernize public services
The project will introduce IoT-enabled infrastructure and AI-driven analytics to create a digital twin of the city, enhancing traffic management and emergency response times.
60% of the total project scope will be managed by Kazakhstani companies, ensuring local workforce participation and in-country economic benefits.
The initiative supports the City of Astana’s digital transformation goals, focusing on improving liveability, sustainability, and public services.
Presight has previously collaborated with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, Samruk-Kazyna, and Astana Hub on AI and digitalisation projects.
In February 2024, Presight signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, in collaboration with Samruk-Kazyna, to develop of a state-of-the-art AI supercomputer and data centre cluster to enable digital initiatives.
Presight is expanding its Astana office to support its growing presence in Kazakhstan and the broader Central Asia region.

ZOOM OUT – Presight’s continued success in Kazakhstan is consistent with an increasing number of agreements with the UAE. Early last year the UAE’s Ministry of Investment of the UAE signed an MoU with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry and its sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna. The agreement was drafted to create a framework for investment cooperation in data centre and AI projects in Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, Kazakh gas pipeline operator and producer Qazaqgaz met with ADNOC last month to discuss cooperation in joint exploration projects in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

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