Future of Kazakhstan's Semiconductor Industry Discussed Experts
On May 23, 2025, Nazarbayev University (NU) hosted the forum "Сharting the Silicon Road: Digital Hardware Design Development and Education for Modern Kazakhstan", DKnews.kz reports.
The event brought together representatives from government bodies, academia, and industry to discuss the future of Kazakhstan's semiconductor sector, spotlighting the country's first-ever chip designed at NU.
The forum also addressed training opportunities for specialists in digital design and microchip verification.
The developers believe this first chip labeled "Designed in Kazakhstan" marks Kazakhstan's entry into the global semiconductor industry, opening new doors for research, education, and the growth of high-tech sectors.
"We don't need to build multi-billion-dollar factories to start contributing to the semiconductor industry. We can enter this industry through chip design and verification. I believe Kazakhstan should eventually support a strong ecosystem of business entities—companies that provide design and verification services to private companies and government institutions. For these businesses to thrive, the next essential step is to secure global contracts. Suppose we learn how to design and verify chips at a high level. In that case, we can technically compete for such contracts" Nursultan Kabylkas, Assistant Professor at NU, who led the chip development project
The chip's creation was made possible through an international partnership with the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chips under the "One Student – One Chip" initiative. NU students developed and tested the processor over three months. They then successfully integrated the Kazakhstani design into the partners' high-volume production process, resulting in a fabricated microchip at no cost. In his speech, Professor Yungang Bao, a leading expert at the State Key Laboratory of Computer Architecture at the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), emphasized that Kazakhstan's first CPU was made possible thanks to open-source technologies.
"Students from around the world can join the platform independently. We aim to develop open-source processors, so more people can learn chip design. While the software development ecosystem has existed for over 40 years, open-source initiatives in semiconductors are only just emerging. The more specialists who master these technologies, the more accessible and democratic the semiconductor industry will become" noted Dr. Yunghan Bao
The forum also featured speakers such as Geoff Lee, Vice President for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Siemens EDA; Arslan Kudiyar, co-founder of Texer.AI; and other experts who emphasized the urgent need to train qualified engineers to build a robust ecosystem.
