The Firebird AI Factory has officially opened in Armenia, giving the country one of the region’s most powerful artificial intelligence computing hubs while setting the stage for an ambitious expansion into international markets.
U.S.-based AI cloud company Firebird launched the facility in Hrazdan on August 8, 2026. NVIDIA described it as the largest AI factory in the CIS region and said the project establishes a new computing hub powered by NVIDIA accelerated computing and high-performance infrastructure from Dell Technologies.
The opening is much bigger than the launch of another data center.
Firebird is positioning Armenia as the starting point for a global AI infrastructure network aimed particularly at emerging markets that have historically had limited access to the huge amounts of computing power needed to train and operate modern artificial intelligence models.
The company’s roadmap now stretches beyond Armenia to Kazakhstan and other markets, with roughly 2 gigawatts of AI infrastructure under consideration across its broader expansion strategy.
Firebird AI Factory puts Armenia on the AI map
The new Firebird AI Factory is located near Hrazdan, about 50 kilometers from the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the official opening alongside senior government and technology representatives. Those present included Kazakhstan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires David Allen and NVIDIA Vice President Rev Lebaredian.
The first phase represents an investment of about $500 million.
According to the Armenian government, the initial development covers an area of roughly 200,000 square meters and is designed to operate more than 6,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs with around 18 megawatts of capacity.
These high-performance processors can handle the enormous volumes of computation required for training AI models, running inference systems and solving complex scientific and industrial computing problems.
That makes the facility more than a place for storing data.
An AI factory essentially converts computing power, electricity and data into the digital intelligence needed to build and operate increasingly sophisticated AI systems.
NVIDIA technology sits at the heart of Firebird AI Factory
Firebird’s infrastructure is built around NVIDIA’s accelerated computing technology.
The Armenia facility uses NVIDIA’s DSX architecture, which brings computing, networking, power and cooling systems together in an infrastructure design created specifically for large AI workloads.
NVIDIA says the architecture can allow operators to deploy more GPUs within the same physical footprint while increasing the amount of computing output generated from available power capacity.
Dell Technologies supplies the PowerEdge server infrastructure supporting the GPUs.
Schneider Electric is providing key electrical infrastructure, including switchgear, uninterruptible power systems and rack equipment. Vertiv is supporting the site’s cooling architecture using chilled-water technology and automated thermal-management systems.
The combination highlights how building an AI factory now requires far more than buying advanced processors.
Thousands of high-performance GPUs generate enormous heat and consume significant power. Reliable electricity, specialized cooling, high-speed networking and sophisticated management software are therefore becoming as strategically important as the processors themselves.
Firebird AI Factory expansion could transform Armenia’s capacity
The Hrazdan opening represents only the first stage.
NVIDIA says Firebird plans to deploy more than 70,000 Blackwell and next-generation Rubin GPUs and reach about 300 megawatts of AI infrastructure capacity in Armenia by the end of 2027.
The Armenian government has outlined an even broader approved expansion path.
Officials say subsequent stages could eventually push the platform beyond 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell and Vera Rubin GPUs and more than 400 megawatts of total capacity. The second phase alone is expected to lift cumulative investment beyond $4 billion.
That scale would place Armenia in a very different position in the global technology industry.
The country has a population of only around three million, yet it is attempting to establish computing infrastructure capable of serving AI developers, startups, research organizations and companies far beyond its domestic market.
For Armenia, the potential payoff is not simply hosting powerful computers.
Access to advanced computing infrastructure can make it easier for local companies to build AI products without relying entirely on distant data centers. It could also make the country more attractive to international technology firms looking for additional locations to run demanding AI workloads.
Global expansion moves beyond Armenia
Firebird’s ambitions extend well beyond Hrazdan.
The company and NVIDIA are pursuing an approximately 2-gigawatt AI infrastructure roadmap that includes Armenia, Kazakhstan and additional international markets.
That strategy reflects one of the biggest shifts taking place in the global AI industry.
For years, the most powerful computing infrastructure has been concentrated in major technology markets, particularly the United States.
But governments increasingly view access to AI computing power as strategic infrastructure, much like telecommunications networks, power generation or cloud computing.
Firebird wants to bring hyperscale computing capacity into markets that have traditionally been outside the world’s largest AI infrastructure corridors.
Kazakhstan is becoming an important part of that plan as the country pushes to build its own large-scale AI and digital infrastructure.
NVIDIA and CoreWeave back Firebird’s expansion
Firebird’s global push is also attracting major technology investors.
NVIDIA said it intends to invest in Firebird, although financial terms were not disclosed.
The planned investment follows an earlier investment from AI cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave. According to NVIDIA, the backing is intended to help Firebird expand its infrastructure and operational footprint while developing advanced computing clusters in emerging markets.
That support could prove important.
Demand for AI computing capacity has risen rapidly as companies race to train larger models and deploy AI tools across search, software, healthcare, finance, robotics and other industries.
Building the infrastructure necessary to satisfy that demand requires billions of dollars in processors, servers, energy systems, cooling and networking equipment.
For smaller infrastructure companies, strong technology and financial partners can make global expansion considerably easier.
Perplexity emerges as an early Firebird customer
Firebird is also beginning to attract AI companies that need substantial computing capacity.
NVIDIA said Perplexity is among the early companies working with Firebird to access high-performance AI infrastructure.
Perplexity operates an AI-powered answer engine and agent platform that requires substantial computing resources to process user requests and run sophisticated AI models.
Securing customers of that type is important because the commercial success of an AI factory ultimately depends on how much of its expensive computing infrastructure is actively used.
The value of thousands of advanced GPUs comes from keeping those systems busy training models, serving AI applications and handling high-performance workloads.
Local researchers and startups could also benefit
Not all of the Firebird AI Factory’s capacity is intended for overseas technology companies.
Armenia has also moved to secure computing resources for its domestic technology ecosystem.
The Armenian Ministry of High-Tech Industry signed an agreement with Firebird in April 2026 under which the government plans to acquire $25 million worth of high-performance computing resources.
Those resources are intended to support AI specialists, researchers, scientists, educational institutions and startups.
That could prove particularly important for smaller AI companies.
Training sophisticated models can require computing resources that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for startups, universities and independent researchers.
Providing shared access to high-end infrastructure could lower that barrier.
Firebird AI Factory signals a wider AI infrastructure race
The opening of the Firebird AI Factory comes as countries increasingly compete not only over artificial intelligence software, but also over the physical infrastructure needed to power it.
Advanced GPUs have become strategic assets.
So have electricity, cooling capacity, high-speed fiber connections and suitable locations for enormous computing clusters.
Firebird’s Armenia project shows how that competition is expanding beyond the world’s traditional technology centers.
The company says the Hrazdan facility moved from development to operational capacity in just over six months, an unusually rapid deployment for infrastructure of this complexity.
Now comes the harder part: scaling the model.
If Firebird can turn its Armenian launch into a broader network spanning Kazakhstan and other emerging markets, the company could become an important alternative provider of high-performance AI computing outside established hyperscale hubs.
For Armenia, meanwhile, the Firebird AI Factory represents an unusually large bet on the infrastructure behind the artificial intelligence economy.
The GPUs may sit inside a facility in Hrazdan, but the intended market is increasingly global.
