Astana, 21 October. The sole shareholder of the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, the government, re-elected the fund's board of directors in its previous composition, and it still includes the SKAI neural network, which the fund calls a digital independent board member with voting rights, according to a disclosure on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.
The shareholder took the decision on 7 October, the disclosure is dated 20 October, and reports about it appeared on 21 October. The board has eight members: its chairman, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov; presidential aide for economic affairs Nurlan Baibazarov; the chairman of the fund's management board Nurlan Zhakupov; independent directors Bolat Zhamishev, Luca Sutera, Wong Heang Fine and Mohammed Jameel Al Ramahi; and Samruk-Kazyna Artificial Intelligence (SKAI). All current members kept their seats.
Of the board's eight members, seven are natural persons.
The neural network's seat on the board is disputed by the Kazakhstan Association of Minority Shareholders (QAMS). In response to its request, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market replied that under Article 54(1) of the Law on Joint Stock Companies only a natural person can be a member of a board of directors: the norm is mandatory, with no exceptions, and applies to all joint stock companies regardless of ownership or state participation. The fund's corporate governance code was approved by a government resolution and contains no provisions allowing AI on the board, and a subordinate act, the regulator noted, cannot widen or change the requirements of the law. The status of an independent director, according to the agency, implies professional judgement, personal responsibility and the absence of a conflict of interest, qualities that in the regulator's view apply only to a natural person.
After the regulator's reply, the association again turned to the Prosecutor General's Office, asking it to check the legality of the decision to appoint the AI and, if violations are found, to lodge a protest and require the fund to bring the composition of its governing bodies into line with the law. QAMS executive director Daniyar Temirbayev listed the risks: decisions of the board being challenged in court on procedural grounds, possible losses for those dealing with the fund and its subsidiaries, and damage to investor confidence.
What it means: The government, as shareholder, has kept the artificial intelligence experiment on the board of the country's main state holding for another term, even though the financial market regulator stated plainly that the law allows only people on a board. The dispute over the legality of the decision remains open.
Who benefits: The fund and its shareholder keep the format they chose themselves. Minority shareholders, in QAMS's assessment, run the risk that board decisions taken with the neural network's participation could be challenged in court. The fund's official position on the dispute is not given in the sources.
Background: The fund announced on 2 October 2025 that the SKAI neural network had joined its board of directors. In November 2025 QAMS had already appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office; the request was then forwarded to the digital development ministry, which replied that the use of AI in company management is governed by general legislation and by organisations' internal rules.
List of sources used: KASE, Atameken Business, Нацбанка, Forbes Kazakhstan, Forbes Kazakhstan
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
