Armenia Emerges as AI Data Center Hub With 70,000 Nvidia Chips

A US-backed data center in Armenia is set to house more than 70,000 advanced Nvidia chips by end-2027, positioning the South Caucasus nation as a regional AI hub. San Francisco-based Firebird launched operations last month at a facility in Hrazdan, about 45 kilometers from Yerevan, targeting 300 megawatts of capacity. Nvidia chip export permits became a bargaining chip in US-brokered peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A fifth of Firebird's computing power is reserved for domestic use, with the remainder allocated to foreign firms including US-based Perplexity AI. Armenia's engagement with Nvidia dates to 2019, when Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the chipmaker's Santa Clara office. Nvidia established a Yerevan presence in 2022, evacuating engineers from Moscow after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Firebird secured over twice the number of Nvidia processors the US licensed for export to Saudi Arabia's Humain.