Rostelecom Launches an “AI Factory”
Build-Operate-Transfer for neural networks: Rostelecom’s new model aims to accelerate AI adoption across Russian industry.
Russian telecom and technology company Rostelecom has announced the creation of the TsMII (Artificial Intelligence Scaling Center) consortium, an open initiative designed to drive large-scale deployment of AI solutions across key sectors of the Russian economy. The project will be launched through Fazum, a company within Rostelecom’s X.Technologies digital cluster. TsMII’s founding partners include the Skolkovo Foundation and several technology firms: InBoost, Manaraga, Guardora, Chayteks, Chatme.AI, and KIT. Other technology companies and major corporate customers will be able to join the initiative in the future.
The New Consortium Aims to Remove Barriers to AI Adoption
Russia’s technology sector remains one of the fastest-growing segments of the national economy. Over the past six years, the share of digital technologies in the country’s GDP structure has doubled. Sales of Russian software products and services have increased nearly 4.5-fold and exceeded 5 trillion rubles ($69.5 billion) by the end of 2025.
Russia’s AI market is growing almost twice as fast as the broader IT sector. More than half of enterprises are already deploying AI technologies, yet relatively few have reached full-scale production use, leaving substantial room for expansion. Key obstacles include a shortage of specialists, limited computing resources, and uncertainty around project economics. The consortium’s central mission is to help Russian businesses overcome the systemic barriers that continue to slow industrial-scale AI deployment.
Ready-Made Solutions Instead of Endless Pilots
TsMII will act as a systems integrator, identifying industry-specific challenges, assembling development teams, and delivering finished solutions through a Build-Operate-Transfer model. By pooling resources, sharing infrastructure, and reusing proven technologies, the center aims to deploy AI solutions for industry, business, and government organizations faster and at lower cost than isolated projects developed independently by individual participants.
The center’s activities will include AI consulting, process diagnostics, economic-impact assessment, and deployment-strategy development. Its technical foundation will consist of an AI platform with a library of standardized industry solutions, product development teams working alongside customers, and secure hardware-software complexes for on-premise infrastructure. Another major priority is workforce development, addressing one of the market’s most acute challenges: a critical shortage of machine-learning and data-science professionals. The consortium is building more than a collection of services. It is creating a sustainable ecosystem for large-scale, secure, and economically viable AI adoption.
From Lab Experiments to Mass-Market Adoption
Government support for AI development in Russia has evolved gradually over the past several years, laying the groundwork for initiatives such as TsMII. In 2021, under the Tsifrovaya ekonomika (Digital Economy program) national initiative, the Skolkovo Foundation began supporting not only AI development but also the testing of AI technologies in real-world conditions across priority industries.
Russia’s generative AI market received a major boost when Yandex integrated YandexGPT into the Alisa (Alice AI) service and Sber launched GigaChat. Those technologies moved beyond research labs and enterprise environments into everyday consumer use. The existence of competitive domestic alternatives to global large language models, such as Alice AI and GigaChat, highlights the depth of local AI expertise.
Russia Prepares for the Global AI Market
In 2024, Russia adopted an updated National Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy through 2030. Since 2025, the country has been implementing the Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State national project, with Artificial Intelligence serving as one of its key federal programs. At the same time, the government established the AI Development Center to coordinate technology-development efforts, scale best practices, support regulatory frameworks for AI safety, and organize international cooperation. These measures support objectives outlined by President Vladimir Putin, including the creation of foundational AI models whose full lifecycle, from training to deployment, is carried out by Russian companies while remaining globally competitive.
The goal is for AI products to be used across all sectors, including the economy and education, by 2030. The president also emphasized the need for a comprehensive system to promote Russian AI platforms and AI-powered services in international markets while expanding cooperation with partners across the CIS, SCO, and BRICS.
In May 2026, Russia helped launch the International AI Alliance and initiated a conference focused on computational optimization. These platforms brought together researchers and businesses from dozens of countries, demonstrating that Russia aims not only to develop sovereign AI capabilities but also to help shape the global technology agenda.
Against that backdrop, the creation of TsMII responds directly to market demand and serves as one of the practical mechanisms for bringing advanced AI technologies into the real economy.
