AI Factory to become available to Armenian eco-startup environment - minister

ArmInfo. Almost $500 million in investments will be directed to the implementation of a large-scale project in Armenia, which was officially presented the day before at the largest European startup and technology conference Viva Technology. The RA Government, NVIDIA, Firebird and Team Group will join forces to create the most powerful supercomputer and data processing center in the region based on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted this on June 12 at a  regular government meeting.

As indicated by the Minister of High-Tech Industry of Armenia Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, the co-founder and CEO of Firebird.ai. is Razmik Hovakimyan. The team also includes Noubar Afeyan (Afeyan Foundation.  Afeyan, who is also the CEO of Flagship Pioneering, will act as a strategic advisor and founding partner).  NVIDIA Vice President Rev Liparityan also made a major contribution to the implementation of the project.

, the minister noted.

AI Factory will become a platform for innovation, education, science and entrepreneurship. It will stimulate the development of local and international startups, ensure the connection between science and technology and turn Armenia into a regional tech hub, a place for creating artificial intelligence.

, - he explained. The Cabinet of Ministers will make a certain part available to the local eco- startup environment.

According to Hayrapetyan, at this stage, the RA government has not yet decided on the final format of involvement in the project: will it be in the context of providing an appropriate land plot, providing energy capacities on preferential terms or something else.

In turn, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that Armenia is capable of providing the project with the necessary amount of electricity. According to him, the possibility of placing a computing center in Akademgorodok is being discussed, the construction of which will begin in the medium term.  Firebird is scheduled to launch this project in 2026 with thousands of NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, designing an infrastructure with a capacity of over 100 megawatts.

Firebird.ai is a San Francisco and Yerevan-based AI cloud company that will launch the first and largest AI supercomputer in the Caucasus based on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in 2026. Future Firebird branches will deliver reliable, high-performance AI infrastructure to high-growth markets around the world, reinvesting a portion of their revenues into developing local technology capabilities.

Team Group, which operates Armenia's national telecom operator Team Telecom Armenia, Ireland's Imagine Broadband, and is also a shareholder in Georgia's SkyTel, will use its expert resources and unique telecom infrastructure in the region to implement this large-scale project in the country.