Deputy CEO Of Sberbank: Equalize Nuclear Equivalent AI Power

JAKARTA - Artificial intelligence (AI) will have an equivalent influence to nuclear technology for countries that are able to lead it from an early age. Those who succeed in superior AI development are predicted to have global superiority throughout this century. This was said by a top executive of Russian technology.

The statement was made by Alexander Vedyakhin, Russia's largest Deputy CEO of Sberbank, who transformed into an AI-based technology conglomerate in an interview with Reuters at the annual AI Journey event.

Vedyakhin assessed that Russia's success in entering seven countries with homemade AIs was a big achievement.

"AI is like a nuclear project. A new 'nuclear club' is emerging globally, whether you have your own national big language (LLM) model, or not," Vedyakhin said, quoted by VOI from Reuters.

He stressed that Russia must have at least two to three original AI models, not foreign models that are only retrained, especially for sensitive sectors such as public services, health and education.

"It's impossible to upload confidential data to foreign models. It's strictly forbidden and can have very bad consequences," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously also stressed that local AI models are essential to safeguarding Russia's sovereignty. Sberbank and Yandex are now on the front lines to catch up with AI giants in the US and China.

Although Russia is included in the small group of national AI development countries, Vedyakhin admits there is a significant gap.

According to him, the United States and China are ahead for about six to nine months compared to other countries, including Russia, and that advantage is widening every day. He said the new AI club membership was practically closed.

Those who just want to start now will be very difficult to catch up. The cost is huge, almost impossible," he said.

Western sanctions are referred to as a major obstacle, especially in access to high-level computing technologies.

Vedyakhin said Sberbank's GigaChat 2 MAX model was comparable to ChatGPT 4.0, while GigaChat Ultra Preview was equivalent to ChatGPT 5.0.

Sberbank even plans to open access to some of its newest AI models open-source for commercial use.

AI requires large investments, including the need for the electricity sector which is estimated to reach 40 trillion rubles for power plants and 5 trillion rubles for networks in the next 16 years.

With the limited infrastructure, Russia relies on the capabilities of local mathematicians and programmers. What we cannot achieve by number, we achieve with skills, "said Vedyakhin.

He also said that the next AI breakthrough could arise from a big leap in LLM memory capacity or the emergence of a new AI architecture that is not GPT-based, as DeepSek from China did in 2024.

However, Vedyakhin warned of the risk of excessive investment. The high energy consumption makes the profits from AI investments very far or even invisible.

"We believe excessive AI investment may not come to fruition. Russia will not experience an AI bubble, because the investment is not excessive," he said.