The tech patron has a new address in Central Asia. Alexey Gubarev, a co-founder of Servers.com and Palta, is converting a former Soviet bus terminal in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, into a museum for his personal car collection. The project signals a shift in how technology founders spend their wealth after selling their companies.
From Data Centers to Car Collections
Gubarev built his fortune in the technology sector. He founded Servers.com, a bare-metal hosting company, and later co-founded Palta, a health-technology studio behind the app Flo. In 2023, he sold Servers.com to CloudOne Digital for an estimated $200 million. His collecting career began around 2014, starting with a plan to buy just a few cars a year for a small warehouse.
The collection has since grown past 200 vehicles. Gubarev focuses on the golden age of automotive design, specifically the 1920s and 1930s. He owns more than sixty “boat-tail” cars, a sweeping aerodynamic style popular during that era. The museum will display about 80 of these vehicles, tracing automotive design across American, German, British, French, and Soviet traditions.
Preserving a Soviet Structure
The museum will occupy a Soviet-era bus terminal in Bishkek. The architecture firm IND is restoring the building’s modernist structure rather than replacing it. IND is preserving the terminal’s multi-level circulation system, where separate pedestrian flows once moved at different heights. The firm is also reworking the canopy and glazing for contemporary use while adding new ramps for accessibility.
Read Also: Pre marital health checks gain popularity
Interior design comes from the creative studio SILA SVETA. The layout follows a single visitor route through connected spaces. Visitors enter beneath an LED installation modeled on the Nürburgring racetrack. They then move through a sequence of rooms that treat the cars from different angles, such as engineering, cinema, and design. The goal is to keep architecture as a neutral background so the cars remain the focus.
A Personal Expression of Taste
Unlike a traditional foundation grant, this museum is built from scratch around Gubarev’s specific taste. He has said he wants the space to include open public areas and educational zones. This positions the project as a year-round cultural destination rather than a single-collection showcase. The museum is expected to open in 2027.
Gubarev connects his approach to business with his collecting habits. He told the Cyprus Journal of Wealth Management that both dealmaking and car-buying require patience and the ability to wait for the right moment. The philosophy of judging rarity and timing carries into the museum’s design. The result is a physical, permanent expression of a founder’s personal interests that will exist long after the company that funded it has moved on.
Leave a Reply