Russia Discusses New AI Industry Support Measures — Subsidy Could Reach Nearly 72 Billion Rubles

Russia is discussing a set of support measures for AI projects, with a total annual volume of 71.7 billion rubles, according to RBC citing sources. The initiative by the Digital Economy organization proposes that AI model developers receive tax benefits, and data centers get priority when connecting to power grids. The measures are intended not only for Yandex and Sber but also for other companies creating their own AI models, including T-Bank, MTS, and Norilsk Nickel. Specifically, 52.4 billion rubles would be allocated for AI development, and 19.3 billion rubles for stimulating business demand for neural network technologies. The largest part of support — 31 billion rubles per year — could come from extending existing IT tax benefits to companies that own 'national' AI models and have their own data centers, including zero profit tax and reduced insurance premiums. Another 15.3 billion rubles would be needed to introduce a doubling coefficient for expenses on equipment for national model development, such as video cards, networking equipment, and hard drives. Additionally, 5.4 billion rubles would go to a doubling coefficient for expenses on fine-tuning 'sovereign' and 'national' models. The initiative also includes exempting data centers from property tax (1 billion rubles) and a reduced VAT rate of 10% for autonomous transport. To boost demand, a tax deduction for expenses on remote access to AI platforms is proposed, costing 5.5–12 billion rubles per year, and zero VAT for cloud AI services (1.8 billion rubles). Infrastructure measures include subsidizing data center construction, providing rent benefits for data center operators, issuing soft loans for purchasing servers and GPUs, grants for creating data sets, and launching venture funds for AI projects, as well as prioritizing data centers for grid connection.