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At the Kazakhstan–China investment forum in Almaty on 25 September, the Abai regional administration exchanged two agreements with a consortium of Xinjiang Sanbao Industrial Group and Inner Mongolia Wanjiang Investment. The first covers a 300,000-tonne-a-year primary aluminium smelter with a 1 GW wind farm, about $1.5bn in total including roughly $1bn for the smelter, built between March 2027 and December 2028. The second is a particleboard plant in Semey with capacity of 2 million sheets a year, costing about $172m, for 2027–2028.

The East Kazakhstan regional government and Kazakh-Chinese joint venture East Motors Corporation signed a document on 25 September at the Kazakhstan–China Investment Forum in Almaty for a complex producing passenger cars, special vehicles and engines. Capital spending after the preparatory phase is put at no less than 110bn tenge, capacity at up to 80,000 units a year, with localisation rising in stages to 50%. It is still a memorandum: the Chinese partner, timeline and site have not been disclosed.

The first phase of China's Fufeng Group corn deep-processing project in Kazakhstan's Zhambyl region started up by video link on 25 September, with $350 million invested and capacity to process 500,000 tonnes of corn a year. A second phase would lift capacity to 3 million tonnes for a further $1.15 billion, with about 1,500 jobs once complete. For Chinese firms in agriculture, feed and food additives, local corn demand and the amino-acid supply picture may shift.

UBTECH Robotics and NERO Group are setting up robot production in the Park of Innovative Technologies SEZ in Almaty. NERO Group CEO Yerlan Nabiyev told a 25 September forum that educational kits go into production in October, up to 50,000 a year, and that service and humanoid robot localisation starts in Q2 2027 at 1,000 units a year. He put investment at about $440 million, $340 million of it reportedly a technology transfer fee; the figure has not been officially published. It is UBTECH's first own plant outside China.

The Akmola Region akimat and China’s SUNGROW Renewable Development (Sungrow group) signed on 25 September 2026 at the Kazakhstan–China Investment Forum in Almaty to build three wind plants totaling 450 MW, with investment of up to about USD 500 million. The akimat press service says construction is planned to start in October 2026 (2026–2028); land is registered, design estimates ready and state expertise passed. For Chinese renewables investors, this follows 221 MW of projects in Arshaly District in 2023.

Astana Motors Manufacturing Kazakhstan in Almaty rolled out the first about 60 OMODA and JAECOO vehicles in September 2026. At the Kazakhstan–China Investment Forum, Astana Motors’ CEO said the brands target about 2,000 units by year-end and about 10,000 in 2027; plant investment is about KZT 215 billion. A technical licensing deal with Chery Holding was signed in Shanghai on 16 July 2026. For Chinese OEMs and parts suppliers, the figures mark localization timing and volume.

On 25 September at the Kazakhstan–China forum in Almaty, Samruk-Energy, China Energy Overseas Investment and SANY Renewable's overseas investment arm signed an agreement to jointly develop a wind project of up to 1 GW in Zhetysu region: two 500 MW wind farms, two 150 MW/300 MWh storage systems and roughly 800 km of 500 kV lines. The agreement runs for three years and may be extended; investment and timing were not disclosed.

Kazakh Invest signed an agreement with Silk Road Finance Corporation at the Kazakhstan-China Investment Forum in Almaty to set up an investment fund on the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) platform to finance priority projects. Fund size, shareholdings, the manager and first projects have not been announced.

SnowValley Food Kazakhstan Group Holdings Ltd., linked to China's Snow Valley, was registered at the AIFC on 30 September 2026, with holding and potato-processing activities. It ties to an April memorandum with Pavlodar region: processing 100,000–200,000 tonnes of potatoes a year, quick-frozen fries, a breeding centre and logistics, with investment estimated at $100–200 million. Site and timeline are not yet announced.

The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) said on 7 October that bonds ATBNb3 of Altyn Bank, a subsidiary of China CITIC Bank, begin trading on its main board on 8 October. The issue totals 100 billion tenge, runs from 24 September 2026 to 24 September 2029 and pays a 16.5% annual coupon twice a year. At the 24 September placement, 12 participants placed active bids of about 106.2 billion tenge, or 106.2% of the offer, and the issue was fully sold. It is the first tranche of a 200 billion tenge bond programme, underwritten by Halyk Finance and Centras Securities.

On 7 September the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan completed its second sovereign panda bond on China's onshore market for RMB 6.6 billion: a three-year tranche of RMB 5 billion at 1.82% and a five-year tranche of RMB 1.6 billion at 1.95%. Astana International Exchange announced the listing on 10 September. CICC was lead manager; CCB, ICBC, the Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China were joint leads; Teniz Capital was local manager. The debut RMB 3.4 billion three-year note at 1.9% priced on 26 May and listed on AIX in June.

Kazakh National University plans to establish three joint research centers with Chinese partners focusing on artificial intelligence, alternative energy, and data storage. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy will coordinate initiatives in the energy sector, and the cooperation also plans to test AI models at operating energy facilities. The investment amount and launch timeline have not been disclosed.

According to the original article, Akashi unveiled a future world-class data center in Astana. The original article did not disclose specific details such as the investment scale, construction timeline, or partners. Companies interested in Kazakhstan's digital infrastructure sector should watch for further information.

At the Kazakhstan–China Investment Forum on 25 September, Almaty's city akimat and Guotai Junan Securities (Hong Kong) Limited signed a memorandum of understanding on arranging and supporting a dim sum bond issue on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. KAZAKH INVEST says the issue is for city-owned SPK Almaty JSC. No size, tenor, coupon or timing has been disclosed. In August and September KazMunayGas (CNY 3.5 billion) and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (CNY 3.7 billion) placed dim sum bonds, and Guotai Junan International was among DBK's arrangers.

Amazon's AI shopping assistant Rufus had about 300 million users in 2025 and drove nearly 12 billion dollars in incremental annualized sales; in July 2026 Kaspi.kz launched Kasper, a Kazakh- and Russian-speaking assistant, in Almaty. Drawing on a talk by a former Rufus team member, this article sets out seven points on AI-guided shopping and five tips for Chinese sellers in Kazakhstan: rewrite product cards in Russian and Kazakh, manage reviews and returns, try platform tools early, start small with internal AI, and avoid relying on a single entry point.

Kazatomprom's extraordinary shareholder meeting, held by absentee ballot, is considering a spot-term contract to sell natural uranium concentrates (U3O8) to SNURDC, a subsidiary of State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), with physical delivery to Alashankou railway station in China. Ballots closed at 18:00 on 6 October, and votes are to be counted by 18:00 Astana time on 7 October. Price, volumes and timing are confidential. A Uranium One contract and a board change are also on the agenda. In August, shareholders approved Letter of Agreement No. 1 to a long-term contract with CNUC.

In June 2026 Jiangsu province opened the Jiangsu Center in Central Asia in Astana, a one-stop service hub for Chinese companies entering Kazakhstan and the region, offering consulting, exhibitions and Silk Road e-commerce support. It is built and run by provincial state-owned Suhao Holding. A Jiangsu trade and economic representative office in Kazakhstan, set up by the provincial commerce department and Suhao, opened at the same time. The operator dates the ceremony to 11 June.

Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said on 6 October that three large coal chemicals projects are under way and a 2026-2031 roadmap for the sector is in draft. The lead project is a metallurgical coke plant in Dubovka, Karaganda region, where an investment agreement with a Chinese investor has been signed. Kazakhstan Success Coking Energy LLP will invest 63.5 billion tenge, start production in 2029 at up to 500,000 tonnes a year and reach about 1 million tonnes by end-2031. Two other projects will each make 100,000 tonnes of diesel a year from coal. The roadmap has not yet been approved.

KazMunayGas (KMG) said on 30 September that overall progress at the Silleno polyethylene plant in Atyrau region has passed 39%, with work on the approved schedule and more than 5,000 workers and 500 pieces of equipment on site. The plant is designed to make 1.25 million tonnes of polyethylene a year from ethane separated from Tengiz gas, with start-up planned for 2029. Sinopec holds 30%, and two Sinopec engineering companies are partners in the EPC contracts for the ethane cracker and for the polymerisation unit and utilities.

During AI & Digital Bridge 2026 in Astana (1–3 October), Chinese speech and AI company iFLYTEK signed a memorandum with the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) at Nazarbayev University. According to both sides, the cooperation covers Kazakh and multilingual AI, speech technology, large language models and agents, joint research and talent training. An iFLYTEK team visited ISSAI on 3 September, and the company opened a Central Asia office in Tashkent in July. No amounts, projects or timelines were disclosed.