C is for Continuity: AGI Development in Asia – Pakistan, Afghanistan & Baluchistan.

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Sep 4
8 min read

Updated: Sep 5

Development, Investment, and AGI Progress in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan:

In September, The C Word looks at Asia, a region undergoing significant developmental initiatives that are shaping both regional and global futures. Across areas of Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Pakistan, development continues to accelerate, fuelled by investments and technological advancements. In August 2025, the World Bank approved a $194 million funding package to enhance educational opportunities and improve water security in Baluchistan*1, while Saudi Arabia announced approximately $70 billion in mining investments. Alongside these international initiatives, Baluchistan unveiled a $3.6 billion provincial budget for fiscal year 2025-26 - the largest in its history*13.

Despite challenges, including the recent earthquake near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which caused significant destruction, the region is simultaneously advancing in infrastructure, community development, and emerging technologies. Notably, the rise of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and AI-driven infrastructures is creating new avenues for investment and innovation, marking a notable phase in Asia’s economic landscape. While Pakistan and Baluchistan have their AI and technology initiatives, these are currently localized, with no formal programs directly implemented in Afghanistan.

This brief examines future development trajectories in AGI projects, with a particular focus on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, highlighting developments of investment, policy, and AI-led progress.

Baluchistan:

Baluchistan is taking active steps to adopt AI for better governance and infrastructure oversight. The focus is on:

Smarter, fairer scholarship allocation and departmental accountability through AI-driven profiling.
Enhanced road network monitoring—through AI mapping solutions tailored to the province’s geography.

But so far, these are initiatives within the province, rather than large-scale infrastructure or infrastructure-oriented collaborations.

AI Initiatives in Baluchistan:

1. Governance & Education Enhancement

April 2025: Baluchistan's Chief Minister, Mir Sarfraz Bugti, urged the provincial government to integrate modern AI technologies into governance systems. The goals include improving transparency, efficiency, and institutional accountability. One major area of focus is using AI to evaluate students under the Baluchistan Education Endowment Fund (BEEF) scholarship program - creating personalized profiles based on student's aptitudes for better resource allocation and development planning. He directed officials to craft realistic plans for these AI-driven governance reforms. *12
Earlier in 2024: A committee had been formed to tackle inefficiencies like absenteeism among government employees (teachers and doctors) using AI. Pilot projects were suggested for Bolan Medical College, Civil Sandman Hospital, and the University of Baluchistan to assess feasibility.

2. AI-Powered Road Monitoring

July 2025: CM Bugti emphasized the need for AI systems to monitor road infrastructure-particularly in remote areas. Traditional methods were deemed inadequate, prompting consultations on a smart system for real-time digital assessment of road health and timely maintenance.

August 2025: A formal initiative-the Artificial Intelligence-Powered Communication Infrastructure (AIPCI) Project-was unveiled. Led by the Communications and Works Department in Quetta, this project proposes AI-based road mapping to track both condition and location of the province’s road networks, even in remote zones. A pilot phase is planned to refine deployment. *2, 8

Baluchistan Summary:

· These are provincial-level initiatives led by Baluchistan’s government, primarily for improved administration and infrastructure.

· No reports indicate external collaborators or cross-border sovereign AI development partnerships in the region-Baluchistan appear to be internally initiating these schemes. (It is noted Oxford has allocated two placements at master’s Study levels for Baluchi students to study at Oxford University under a Pakistan funded scheme titled ‘Balochistan Education Endowment Fund - BEEF’, August 2025. It is notably funded by a political party scholarship). *12

· No sovereign AI labs or data centres akin to those in Pakistan at the national level (e.g., Data Vault Pakistan) have been reported in Baluchistan.

· There’s no publicly known AI infrastructure with geopolitical motivations (e.g., focused on border regions or involving Afghanistan).

· No broader AI-driven industrial or health-sector platforms currently reported for Baluchistan- efforts so far are limited to governance and infrastructure.

Afghanistan, for now, remains a regional collaborator in broader economic initiatives like CPEC, but there’s no specific AI infrastructure development underway- at least not in publicly reported sources. Afghanistan’s recent invitation to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under Beijing’s diplomacy may lay groundwork for future AI or digital infrastructure collaboration. However, no formal AI projects in Afghanistan have been confirmed. *5

Pakistan:

Pakistan is actively building a sovereign AI ecosystem—with investments in AI labs, sovereign data centres, electricity infrastructure, and supportive policy frameworks.

In August 2025, Pakistan unveiled its National AI Policy 2025 *11, built on six pillars-innovation, talent, security, infrastructure, governance, and international cooperation- with a goal of digital sovereignty.

The China-Pakistan AI Smart Agriculture Laboratory is leveraging AI technologies to help farmers in Faisalabad monitor crops and improve yields, while Chinese tech giant Huawei is assisting Pakistan in training 200,000 IT professionals, laying a solid foundation for bilateral AI collaboration.*6

Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC)

A government-backed body, formed in March 2025 under the Finance Ministry. Led by CEO Bilal Bin Saqib - with Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao as strategic adviser. *7
While primarily focused on blockchain and digital assets, the PCC also announced a 2,000 MW electricity allocation for AI data centres and Bitcoin mining.
- This reflects an infrastructural foundation for AI deployment and digital innovation. *7

Data Vault Pakistan – AI-native, Solar-Powered Data Centre

Pakistan's first AI-focused, green data centre launched in Karachi by Data Vault in June 2025:
- Solar-powered, high-performance computing with GPU-as-a-service.
- Designed for start ups, enterprises, academic research, and government workloads.
- Emphasizes sovereign infrastructure, data security, and local autonomy from foreign cloud platforms. *9

MindHYVE.ai™ (USA → Pakistan)

A California-based AI firm, MindHYVE.ai™, announced a US$22 million foreign direct investment into Pakistan during the Digital FDI Forum in Islamabad in April 2025.
Their five-year plan includes:
- Establishing AI labs in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi.
- Training a local AI workforce and incubating 20–30 AI start ups.
- Deploying agentic AI systems in healthcare, education, and public sector use cases (e.g. ArthurAI™ learning platform). *10

Who's Developing Sovereign AGI?

Sovereign AGI companies researched in August 2025 are the following:

KingAI (Australia)

· Founded in South Australia, early 2025

· Delivers a near-production sovereign AGI system for industrial and defence applications

· Platform is 95% complete and production-ready

· Deployable in sensitive environments (air-gapped and encrypted systems)

· Proven performance: e.g., autonomous AI tuning delivered a 50HP gain in a BMW

· Website: kingai.com.au/

BIGAI (China)

· Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence

· Established in 2020, backed by government and top universities

· Focuses on "sovereign AGI" with “small data, big tasks” approach

· Developed Tong Tong, a virtual “AI child” with cognitive and emotional behaviours

· https://eng.bigai.ai/

Industry & Infrastructure Providers

· Nvidia: Promotes "sovereign AI" with local infrastructure and cultural alignment; partnered with EU leaders to boost domestic AI independence

· SambaNova Systems: Offers complete sovereign AI infrastructure—hardware and Composition-of-Experts models—for on-premises deployment

National Government Initiatives

· Taiwan: Building Taide, a dialogue LLM based on Llama 2, fine-tuned to reflect Taiwanese government and media content

· Singapore: Planning a sovereign LLM as part of its national AI strategy

· Brazil: Investing in the Santos Dumont supercomputer for sovereign language model training

· Israel: Funding supercomputing hardware for homegrown AI model development

Sovereign AGI viewed as a strategic differentiator:

Countries increasingly view Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) not just as a technological advancement but as a pillar of national power, competitiveness, and security. The global rise of sovereign AGI- led by above initiatives in Australia, China, and across Asia - signals a phase in technological ‘sovereignty’ that could affect Asia’s investment future. Pakistan and Baluchistan can potentially gain when aligning complementary investments with sovereign AI infrastructure, making the region more appealing for Foreign Direct Investments in technology-driven sectors. For Pakistan, sovereign AGI could offer pathways to strengthen data security, attract FDI (Foreign Direct Investments), and enhance innovation in agriculture, governance, and defence. In Baluchistan, localized applications in mining, water security, and education could align with existing development projects and could draw targeted foreign investments. Afghanistan, though constrained by instability, may still benefit indirectly through regional collaboration in reconstruction and disaster management. Ultimately, sovereign AGI stands as both a foundational capability (shaping economic, military, and social futures) and a catalyst (accelerates change across multiple domains of a nation’s development) that encourages regions and its provinces to pursue AI infrastructure that positions them more competitively in Asia.

Projected AGI impact:

Utilising The C Word research, we asked AI to create a forecast projecting if AGI were to be implemented correctly, to list the impact levels for each region for 2030 and 2050:

The scale is 0–10, where 0 is no impact and 10 is full AGI integration.

Pakistan:

Pakistan illustrates the highest impact, reaching near full integration by 2050. By 2030 Pakistan is positioned to gain full-spectrum socio-economic and geopolitical advantages if AGI is implemented correctly.

2030 AGI Impact & Outcomes include:

- Broad deployment of AGI across governance, industry, agriculture, and defence.

- AI-driven productivity gains in agriculture, manufacturing, and public services.

- Attraction of foreign direct investment in AI and tech sectors.

- Enhanced national data security and sovereignty.

- Educational system partially reshaped by AGI-assisted learning platforms (e.g., ArthurAI™).

Baluchistan:

Baluchistan benefits regionally from Pakistan’s AGI ecosystem, with steady growth. Dependent on Pakistan’s national AGI ecosystem, Baluchistan shows localized gains in infrastructure, governance, and targeted industrial applications will benefit provincially, with significant efficiency gains in governance, education, and infrastructure.

2030 AGI Impact & Outcomes include:

- Expansion of AI/AGI into local governance, education, and road infrastructure.

- Smart, data-driven scholarship allocations and targeted human capital development.

- Real-time road monitoring and maintenance improves logistics and regional connectivity.

- Targeted FDI in mining, water management, and provincial infrastructure.

Afghanistan:

Afghanistan sees more gradual gains, primarily through regional collaboration and selective AI adoption. Afghanistan will largely benefit indirectly unless domestic AGI initiatives are launched, but regional collaborations could still yield targeted improvements.

2030 AGI Impact & Outcomes:

- Partial adoption via regional partnerships (e.g., CPEC-linked digital infrastructure).

- AI-driven disaster response and reconstruction optimization.

- Improved efficiency in humanitarian aid distribution.

- Limited domestic AI industry, mostly dependent on foreign expertise.

- Education and governance improvements marginal, due to political instability.

(Table 4 left: created using Chat GPT 5)

Conclusion:

The Asian AGI landscape is a complex interplay of challenges and opportunities. While Afghanistan grapples with political instability, natural disasters, and limited technological infrastructure, Pakistan and Baluchistan are now actively collaborating in AI and emerging technologies driving 2025 domestic development and investments. Pakistan’s national AI policies and programs are noted on social media to foster across healthcare, agriculture, and governance, whereas Baluchistan focuses on applying technology to local infrastructure, education, and resource management, with no formal programs noted as directly implemented in Afghanistan.

Despite the region’s vulnerabilities - highlighted by recent earthquakes in Afghanistan-investment and technological initiatives continue to shape an AGI-centric agenda. From the World Bank’s $194 million support for Baluchistan to Saudi Arabia’s $70 billion mining investment, alongside national and provincial AI projects, the region demonstrates an international interest for future investments and strategic infrastructure planning. Many analysts argue that implementing sovereign AGI has the same kind of transformative, prestige-defining power in the 21st century that nuclear technology and space exploration had in the 20^th - offering not just symbolic status but tangible strategic, technological, and economic advantages. The projections above indicate that the successful implementation of AGI underscores the interdependence of countries.

Baluchistan gains regionally from Pakistan’s AGI ecosystem, while Afghanistan experiences slower progress, primarily through regional collaboration and selective AI adoption. This highlights the critical importance of careful planning, robust regulation, and strong governance during the early stages of AGI implementation.

Ultimately, these developments underscore Asia’s evolving trajectory: a delicate yet determined balance between sustainability, essential reconstruction, real-time disaster management to meet community needs, and simultaneous maintenance of AGI progress.

In our next article we will continue to discuss how together these developments illustrate a region navigating a delicate balance; where investment, innovation, and collaboration are central as we invest in shaping a safer, more technologically empowered, resilient Asia.