On the way to data centers: Why Fintech Companies are investing billions in AI infrastructure

A record takeover is being prepared in the global energy sector: the American giant NextEra Energy buys Dominion Energy for $67 billion. The deal will lead to the creation of the largest electric power company in the world. The merger is taking place against the background of a rapid increase in energy demand for AI infrastructure: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy consumption of data centers in the world increased by 17% in 2025. Freedom Holding Corp., a Kazakhstani fintech company that creates a system of high-tech data centers, has also joined the global race for computing power. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

The biggest deal as a result of the AI boom

On May 18, NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced a merger. NextEra is the largest utility company in the S&P 500. And Dominion provides the capacity for a data center in northern Virginia. The combined company's total value, according to NextEra CEO John Ketcham, will be about $420 billion with a capitalization of about $249 billion. The transaction will take place in the format of an exchange of shares: for each Dominion share, its owners will receive 0.8138 NextEra shares.

— The demand for electricity is growing faster than at any time in recent decades. Projects are getting bigger and more complex. Customers need affordable and reliable electricity now, not in years to come," Ketchum said.

The state of Virginia is the world capital of data centers. Dominion provides electricity to hundreds of data centers, and the combined applications for connection to the NextEra and Dominion networks from technology companies have already reached 130 gigawatts — one gigawatt is enough to power 750,000 homes. Bloomberg analysts attribute the scale of the deal to the rapid growth in energy demand for AI.

The IEA figures confirm the trend: by 2030, global energy consumption of data centers will double to about 945 TWh, and AI-oriented centers will triple. The capital expenditures of the five largest technology companies on data centers exceeded $400 billion in 2025 and are projected to grow by another 75% in 2026.

Freedom Holding is building the largest cluster in Central Asia

While American energy giants are expanding, Freedom Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: FRHC) forms one of the largest clusters of data centers in Central Asia.

The flagship project is Akashi Data Center in Astana, Kazakhstan's first industrial—scale commercial data center of Tier IV (maximum fault tolerance). Its first stage, which is scheduled to be launched by the end of 2026, is designed for 50 MW of capacity with the ability to scale up to 100 MW. The investment will amount to $210 million with a payback horizon of four years. The project is being implemented with the participation of the Chinese telecom giant China Mobile, and Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., has become a key investor. At the beginning of 2026, Akashi has already signed an agreement with Liasail Global Hongkong Limited to deploy computing power for the tasks of training AI models and processing big data.

The second project is the Freedom Cloud data center in Almaty, its construction started in April 2025 in the Park of Innovative Technologies economic zone. Investments amount to more than $200 million, and the data center is designed as an alternative transit data transmission channel between Europe and China through the territory of Kazakhstan. Freedom Cloud has already partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide customers with cloud technologies.

An even more ambitious initiative is the $2 billion Sovereign Artificial Intelligence Center. The agreement on its creation by Freedom Holding Corp. signed in November 2025 jointly with the Ministry of AI and Digital Development of Kazakhstan. The center will operate on Nvidia's sovereign full-scale infrastructure and is designed for 100 MW of available capacity.

— Working with Nvidia is an important step in the implementation of Kazakhstan's national AI strategy. We are building the foundation of a sovereign AI ecosystem," said Deputy Prime Minister Jaslan Madiyev.

Finally, Freedom Holding Corp. He became a key partner in the agreement with OpenAI and the Government of Kazakhstan, signed in Washington. Thanks to this, 165,000 educators — from kindergarten teachers to university teachers — have access to ChatGPT Edu, an educational version with enhanced data protection and localization into Kazakh and Russian.

Why does Freedom Holding need its own facilities

Investing in data centers is a strategic necessity stemming from the holding's business model. The ecosystem of Freedom Holding Corp. It covers over 11 million users, of which more than 5 million use the Freedom SuperApp superapp. Inside one interface, there is access to investment services, banking, insurance, telecom and media, food delivery services, hotel and airline reservations. The company notes that the more products and customers are locked inside the ecosystem, the higher the requirements for transaction speed, quality of AI scoring, anti-fraud and data storage reliability. Dependence on other people's technical solutions becomes a strategic risk.

In addition to internal tasks, data centers are opened by Freedom Holding Corp. new markets. In May 2026, the holding company registered Freedom AI Ltd in the AIFC, which will create data centers and lease server facilities. This is a new business area: computing power is available to both Kazakhstani companies and international players.

Freedom Holding is also expanding its geographical presence: in March 2026, the holding announced an agreement to purchase 99.32% of Turkish Bank A.Ş., which gives access to the Turkish market with a population of 90 million people. For the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, the revenue of Freedom Holding Corp. It reached $1.69 billion.

It is significant that the infrastructural turnaround of Freedom Holding Corp. coincides with the big energy plans of Kazakhstan itself. The government has approved a national project for the development of coal generation for 2026-2030: by the end of the decade, it is planned to introduce 7.8 GW of new and upgraded capacities, build eight new power plants and modernize 11 existing ones. In parallel, exploration work is underway on the shores of Lake Ulken to build the country's first nuclear power plant based on the VVER-1200 reactor.