Speaking at the Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum in Tashkent, Khodjaev said Uzbekistan wants access to AI technologies from both the United States and China rather than relying on one source.
“As a developing country, we want access to all available technologies,” he said in response to a question about Uzbekistan’s approach to AI solutions from the two countries.
Khodjaev said US technology companies offer advanced AI chips and models, while Chinese companies provide open-weight models at significantly lower costs.
“We would like to have access to both,” he said.
Alongside adopting foreign technologies, Uzbekistan is also building its own AI infrastructure and developing models for use in key sectors of the economy.
Khodjaev said the country commissioned its first large-scale supercomputer at the Digital Government Data Center last month and plans to triple its computing capacity over the next 12 months.
The government is also developing AI models for specific areas, including education, healthcare, public services and finance.
“We are also working on our own AI models that will be used in education, healthcare, government services and finance,” Khodjaev said.
Uzbekistan is also seeking to attract investment into AI infrastructure, including data centers.
Khodjaev said the government introduced tax incentives and a preferential electricity tariff last year for investments in data centers in Karakalpakstan. A number of investors are now considering projects in the region, he said.
The government is also establishing Enterprise Uzbekistan, a special zone designed to attract international technology companies by offering a common-law legal regime and tax incentives.
Khodjaev said Uzbekistan remained open to cooperation with international partners and aimed to deploy AI technologies across the economy rather than limit their use to the financial sector.
