300 MW, 70,000 Nvidia Chips: Armenia's Hrazdan Data Center Races to Become Europe's Largest Computing Cluster

Title context: 300 MW, 70,000 Nvidia Chips: Armenia's Hrazdan Data Center Races to Become Europe's Largest Computing Cluster Text: During the Cold War, the smallest Soviet republic was once the electronics and technology hub of the communist superpower. Now, Armenia is poised to become a top global U.S. AI infrastructure Hub Group, Inc. Class A, with its data center expected to reach 300 megawatts by the end of next year, equipped with more than 70,000 cutting-edge chips from NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US). According to Firebird, the data center in the town of Hrazdan is expected to become the largest computing cluster in the region and rank among the largest in Europe. The data center played a role in helping Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan sign a peace treaty after decades of conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump's team promised to allow NVIDIA Corporation exports to advance dialogue with Armenia, ultimately leading to a historic U.S.-brokered agreement. Hrazdan: 300 MW, 70,000 NVIDIA Corporation Chips In August of this year, San Francisco-based startup Firebird began operations at a data center in Armenia. By the end of next year, the facility will reach an installed capacity of 300 megawatts and deploy more than 70,000 of NVIDIA Corporation's most advanced chips. One-fifth of its computing power is reserved for domestic useto support local research, government, and the startup ecosystemwhile the remainder is allocated to foreign companies, including U.S. firms such as Perplexity AI. According to Firebird, this complex in the town of Hrazdan, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the capital Yerevan, is expected to become the largest computing cluster in the region and rank among Europe's largest. Firebird's founder has Armenian ancestry. This economic advantage has far-reaching implications for the South Caucasus and neighboring Central Asiawhere Firebird has already expanded, and where major powers are competing for dominance over a strategic corridor connecting Europe and China while bypassing Russia. Chips for Peace: The Data Center Became a Bargaining Chip in the Agreement This data center has already played a role in the process of Armenia reaching a peace treaty with neighboring Azerbaijan. The two countries have been in conflict for decades over disputed territory, causing tens of thousands of deaths and severing economic ties. According to people involved in the negotiations, to advance consultations with Armenia and ultimately facilitate a historic U.S.-brokered deal with Azerbaijan, Trump's team promised to approve NVIDIA Corporation export licenses. NVIDIA Corporation chips play an important role in this agreement, making it one of the more unusual cases in Trump's "unconventional AI diplomacy" approach. It shows that while Trump's team criticizes the previous administration's overall approach, it is using certain chip export regulations introduced during the Biden administration to achieve goals far beyond technology. This also highlights the ambition of this small country of about 3 million people: it is trying to occupy a central position in a rapidly changing regional landscapeand Yerevan's years of laying the groundwork for tech investment and addressing U.S. concerns about its Russian influence are beginning to pay off in the AI era. The "Sovereignty" Complex Rich Goldman, founder of the Armenia branch of chip design giant and key NVIDIA Corporation partner Synopsys, Inc., said that since Armenia gained independence from the Soviet Union, "sovereignty has generally been a real issue for Armenia." He said this precisely explains where "that paranoia of 'must have our own AI'" comes from. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Pashinyan's office said he has a clear mandate to establish peace with Azerbaijan, and that last year's bilateral agreements signed in Washingtonincluding in semiconductors and artificial intelligencerepresent an important peace dividend for Armenia. From Santa Clara to Yerevan: Seven Years of Preparation Armenia's dealings with NVIDIA Corporation date back to 2019, when Pashinyan visited the chipmaker's office in Santa Clarayears before OpenAI released ChatGPT and ignited the AI boom. That meeting was arranged by former lawmaker Hakob Arshakyan, Armenia's first high-tech minister and now chairman of a foundation promoting Armenian innovation, whose members include tech and IT executives from the global diaspora. NVIDIA Corporation established a presence in Armenia in 2022 and, after the full-scale outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February of that year, relocated engineers from Moscow to its Yerevan office. The following year, CEO Jensen Huang visited the Caucasus countrya trip that Firebird CEO Razmig Hovaghimian said in a statement helped lay the foundation for Firebird's establishment. Also in 2023, Armenia began distancing itself from Russiaits largest trading partner and main arms supplierafter Armenia accused Moscow of failing to fulfill defense treaties and failing to stop Azerbaijan's incursions into its territory. This followed Baku's lightning military operation that took full control of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, triggering a mass exodus of local ethnic Armenians and ending a conflict that had erupted in multiple wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yerevan set out to build more ties with the West, including in technologyan area where Armenia has a long history and strong talent. But these ambitions were dealt a blow by Washington: the United States worried that Armenia could become a channel for Russia to obtain American hardware and feed its war machine in Ukraine. The Biden administration effectively banned China and Russia from buying advanced AI chips in October 2022 and imposed broader sanctions on Moscow. These rules were far from airtight: more ordinary American components also frequently appeared in Russian missilesoften supplied through intermediary countries. The Dilemma Under Export Controls Armenia is a member of the Russia-led customs union and remains formally an ally of Russia. Nevertheless, in early 2023, Pashinyan responded to U.S. and European pressure by imposing strict restrictions on electronics exports to Russia. According to local media reports, he said at the time that Armenia "cannot afford the consequences of being sanctioned by the West." "In our relations with Russia, we will act in a way that allows us to avoid this outcome." A few months later, Washington accused a Russian semiconductor executive of using numerous shell companies in Taiwan, Switzerland, and Armenia to smuggle chips for Russian weapons used to attack Ukrainian cities. At the end of 2023, the Biden team began requiring U.S. licenses for AI chip exports to Armenia and more than 40 other countries, including most former Soviet states and much of the Middle East. Yerevan's efforts to be removed from that list have not yet succeeded. But Armenia continued to work with Biden administration officials to obtain some chips. According to Arshakyan, who was involved in the process, in 2024, after more than six months of negotiations, a national university project obtained an export license for 64 NVIDIA Corporation flagship H100 accelerators for what was then the region's largest supercomputer. Arshakyan said that because Armenia lacked the knowledge to build data centers, the project took more than a year to get running. But he added that the experience provided key expertise in everything from specialized construction to U.S. export regulation, making Firebird's data centerand another data center by Armenian company Eleveight AIpossible. A spokesperson for Eleveight AI said the company is considering expansion into Kazakhstan but has not yet finalized it. Licenses Remain a Threshold, With Precedents in the Middle East These larger data centers still require U.S. licenses. Although Trump relaxed core parts of Biden's chip restrictions, the 2023 regulations have remained largely untouched while his team develops its own global frameworkand they are already using these earlier rules. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for example, Trump administration officials withheld chip export licenses until the two Gulf states agreed to provisions restricting potential Chinese access and investing in the United States. In Armenia, chip export licenses became one of the bargaining chips in advancing the peace agreement with Azerbaijan. The treaty, which has not yet been signed, would pave the way for a key transport corridor running through Armenia from Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan bordering Turkeythe so-called "Trump International Peace and Prosperity Route" (TRIPP), jointly managed by the United States and Yerevan. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement that TRIPP is intended to "promote the prosperity and security of Armenia and Azerbaijan by expanding regional trade and connectivity, expand U.S. commercial opportunities, and open new transit routes from Central Asia and the Caspian Sea to Europe." The agency referred questions about export licensing to the Commerce Department, which handles such licenses and did not respond to questions. According to a spokesperson, Firebird and its partners first applied for a license to purchase NVIDIA Corporation chips in early 2025, when the company would not formally be established for several more months. The spokesperson said the company obtained its first U.S. licenses before the White House peace summit in August of that year, adding that Firebird was not aware at the time of the diplomatic discussions underway. It remains unclear when exactly the Trump administration first approached NVIDIA Corporation about the role the data center could play in advancing a preliminary peace agreement. On the same day Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev finalized the preliminary peace agreement, the United States and Armenia signed a bilateral memorandum of cooperation on artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Statements From Various Parties A NVIDIA Corporation spokesperson said: "Armenia has extraordinary technical talent and a vibrant, growing innovation ecosystem. That is why we began investing in its future long ago. We know Armenia can create economic opportunities, which in turn strengthen regional ties and help underpin the foundations of lasting stability." The number of NVIDIA Corporation processor licenses Firebird has now obtained is more than double the number the United States approved for export to Saudi Arabia's Humain after months of negotiations with Riyadheven though Saudi Arabia's financial resources are orders of magnitude greater than Armenia's. Hovaghimian said: "The Armenian and U.S. governments have been extremely supportive of our vision and growth plans in Armenia. Peace and regional stability create the conditions for investment, innovation, and the prosperity of CKH HOLDINGS global partnerships." Firebird began operations last month, exactly one year after the White House summitusing chips that, as Vice President JD Vance said during his visit to Yerevan in February this year, "simply do not exist in most countries."