The key facts

  • A $350 million data center with 300 jobs is planned in the Alat district of the Bukhara region
  • Foreign investors purchased 90 hectares of land; the companies, terms, and timelines have not been disclosed
  • On November 4, a $40 million Beeline data center was launched in the Kagan district

A new project in the Alat district

A large data center worth $350 million is planned to be built in the Alat district of the Bukhara region. District khokim Nargiza Ne'matova announced this on November 4 at a meeting chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as reported by Gazeta citing a report by Uzbekistan 24. According to her, foreign investors have already purchased 90 hectares of land on pasture and non-irrigated areas and are beginning work; in the future, the project is expected to create 300 permanent jobs.

What was left unsaid

The khokim did not specify which companies are the investors, on what terms the land was transferred to them, or when construction is expected to be completed. Also undisclosed are the data center's designed capacity, its power supply sources, its water needs for cooling, and the facility's purpose. This matters significantly for the reader: without these details, it is impossible to assess either the facility's load on the district's power grid and water resources or how the project relates to plans already announced in the region.

Possible connection with the DataVolt project

In May 2024, the Ministry of Digital Technologies presented a multi-stage program by Saudi Arabia's DataVolt: three data centers in Uzbekistan with investments of up to $5 billion by 2030, including a facility in the Bukhara region on 25 hectares with a capacity of 40 to 250 MW. In June 2026, Beeline Uzbekistan and DataVolt signed a memorandum on studying the joint implementation of a data center in Bukhara, without disclosing its cost or timeline. As Gazeta notes, it is unknown whether the announced $350 million project is connected with DataVolt's plans: earlier, a 25-hectare site was mentioned, whereas the khokim named 90 hectares.

What is already operating in the region

Unlike the announced project, on November 4 the president launched the $40 million Beeline Uzbekistan data center in the Kagan district of the Bukhara region; it was implemented jointly with the Ministry of Digital Technologies and is intended to improve the reliability of the operator's services, according to a statement on the company's website. In September, Uztelecom also opened data centers in Bukhara and Kokand — for cloud computing, big data processing, and artificial intelligence services.

Solar energy and employment

At the same meeting, the khokim spoke about the impact of renewable energy projects on employment: 1,500 people worked on the construction of Masdar's 250 MW solar power plant, 1,000 of them residents of the Alat district, and local entrepreneurs earned income from transport and service services. According to her, an 80 MW plant with 40 MW of storage is also being built in the district, with the participation of Germany's Leman, to supply power to the pumping stations of the Amu-Bukhara canal. This is part of a larger June 2026 agreement between the Ministry of Water Management and the Leman SWMS Investment consortium on the modernization of 19 pumping stations: solar power plants of up to 800 MW at nine sites, storage of up to 400 MWh, and investments of about $940 million in 2027–2030.

Nargiza Ne'matova.