Uzbekistan is offering free AI compute—who can use it, and under what limits?
A new regulation gives selected universities, research organisations, startups and regional AI advisers up to six months of subsidised infrastructure. The rules specify token and GPU-memory ceilings, but no projects or outcomes have yet been reported.
The short version
- What happened
- Government Resolution No. 581 gives selected higher-education institutions, scientific organisations, startups and regional AI advisers access for up to six months.
- Who it affects
- Researchers, startup teams and regional public-service advisers may be able to test AI systems without paying the full infrastructure cost. Who benefits will depend on the unpublished scoring detail, available capacity and whether the six-month window is long enough for responsible evaluation.
- What remains unproven
- The evidence is an official ministry summary of a regulation, not an independent evaluation or a full account of the underlying resolution.
Keep in mind
The evidence is an official ministry summary of a regulation, not an independent evaluation or a full account of the underlying resolution.
No programme budget, capacity denominator, application total, selection result or project outcome has been published.
The announcement does not specify the exact models, hardware, security controls or data-governance review used for approved projects.
Infrastructure access does not by itself establish that a project is safe, effective or socially beneficial.
Source analysis · 1 linked source. Primary analysed source date: 20 October 2026.
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The policy turns public compute into a competitive allocation
Uzbekistan has created a formal route for socially significant AI projects to use Ministry of Digital Technologies infrastructure free or at a discount. The eligible list covers universities, scientific organisations, startups and regional governors' advisers responsible for digital technology and AI. That could lower an immediate cost barrier for research and public-service prototypes, but access is not automatic: applicants are scored out of 100 in competitions scheduled for July and November.[1]
The regulation sets two different resource ceilings
Large-language-model projects may use an API for up to six months, with 10 million tokens free each calendar month. Up to 50 million additional monthly tokens receive a 50% tariff discount, and unused allowances do not roll over. Projects training, testing, validating, evaluating or running other AI models can instead request up to 120 GB of total video memory for the same maximum period. One user cannot run more than one project at once.[1]
The distinction that matters
What the new access route provides
The regulation separates eligibility, selection and two forms of compute support.
Eligible teams
Apply in July or November
Projects are scored out of 100
LLM projects
Use the ministry API
10m free tokens/month; discounted overage
Other AI projects
Request accelerator capacity
Up to 120 GB video memory for six months
A defined process is not yet evidence of impact
Applicants can appeal within three working days, and the commission has five working days to respond. The ministry also restricts unrelated processing, disclosure, copying, distribution and commercial use unless law or contract allows it. Those safeguards and timelines make the scheme inspectable, but the official summary gives no selection weights, capacity denominator, security controls, budget or award results. The next evidence test is whether named projects receive access and produce independently verifiable benefits without breaching data or usage rules.[1]
Continue the story
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Read the next reportExplore the full source and evidence record
What this means for people
- Researchers, startup teams and regional public-service advisers may be able to test AI systems without paying the full infrastructure cost. Who benefits will depend on the unpublished scoring detail, available capacity and whether the six-month window is long enough for responsible evaluation.
Global context
Governments are increasingly treating access to compute as a policy tool for research and domestic innovation. Comparisons will require like-for-like data on award size, utilisation, project completion, public value and safeguards—not just headline capacity.
What the evidence does not yet show
- The evidence is an official ministry summary of a regulation, not an independent evaluation or a full account of the underlying resolution.
- No programme budget, capacity denominator, application total, selection result or project outcome has been published.
- The announcement does not specify the exact models, hardware, security controls or data-governance review used for approved projects.
- Infrastructure access does not by itself establish that a project is safe, effective or socially beneficial.
What to watch next
- Published competition criteria and the number of available awards
- Named recipients and their original project evidence
- Security, privacy and data-location requirements
- Measured outputs after the first six-month access period
Living evidence record
Impact record IAI-0LRPITV
Evidence stage
Announced
Confidence
Developing
Reporting basis
Source analysis
Independent or research support
Not yet
Record status
Monitoring
Last checked
23 October 2026
Source trail
1 direct source across 1 source type.
People impact
Documented in this record.
Uncertainty
Limits and next checks are explicit.
Stages describe the evidence available—not whether a technology is good or bad. See the public method.
Single-source reporting disclosure
This record analyses one direct source. It can establish what Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan published or reported, but it is not independent corroboration of every performance claim or predicted outcome. The confidence label will change only when broader evidence is added.
Evidence trail
Sources used for this report
Links checked 23 October 2026
Research question, topics and regions
Topics: Public AI infrastructure · Compute access · Startups · Research policy · Digital government
Regions: Uzbekistan · Central Asia · Asia
This report is labelled source analysis. We summarise and analyse source material in our own words; company statements remain attributed claims until independently supported. Translated summaries preserve the meaning of the original source and link back to it. Read our editorial standards.
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