Team Group, Firebird, NVIDIA launch a $500 million AI project in Armenia

By Alexander Pracht

Firebird, a San Francisco and Yerevan-based AI cloud company, announced Wednesday a $500 million public-private partnership with the Armenian government, backed by U.S. tech giant NVIDIA, to build a major AI infrastructure hub in the country. The initiative aims to launch the first large-scale AI supercomputer in the South Caucasus by 2026, powered by thousands of NVIDIA Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) and scalable beyond 100 megawatts.

“This is a major step toward strengthening our tech sector and global partnerships,” said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, according to the Firebird press release. “The government is happy to support this initiative and unlock new opportunities for our people and region.”

NVIDIA is best known for producing GPUs, computer components that are widely used in video games and video rendering. But because GPUs are powerful computational devices and are capable of processing many tasks at once, they’ve become essential tools for artificial intelligence as well. The new Blackwell architecture, announced by NVIDIA last year, is specifically designed to meet the heavy demands of AI development. Firebird’s upcoming AI infrastructure will rely on thousands of these GPUs to train and run AI models, similar to how GPUs were once used in cryptocurrency mining, but for much more complex and varied tasks.

Team Group of Companies, the manager of Armenia’s leading national telecommunications operator, Team Telecom Armenia, as well as Ireland’s Imagine Broadband, and a shareholder in Georgia’s SkyTel, will use its expert resources and unique communication infrastructure in the region to bring this large-scale project to life in the country.

“We are honored to participate in the implementation of this large-scale initiative of strategic importance, investing our many years of experience and resources in the technological sector. Our participation reflects our readiness to make Armenia a global center for information technologies, artificial intelligence solutions, and the digital future,” said Alexandr Yesayan, co-founder of Team Group of Companies.

The AI supercomputer, described by partners as an “AI factory,” will support research, robotics, and innovation in Armenia, with Firebird planning to collaborate with leading universities and invest in local talent. “This is about building a launchpad for innovation — from Armenia to the world,” said Firebird CEO Razmig Hovaghimian.

U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien welcomed the project as a symbol of growing U.S.-Armenia tech ties. Team Group, the parent company of Telecom Armenia, will help build the infrastructure, while the Afeyan Foundation for Armenia, led by Flagship Pioneering CEO Noubar Afeyan, is joining as a founding investor and strategic partner. Firebird plans to expand globally, offering sustainable, high-performance AI infrastructure to other emerging markets and reinvesting a portion of its revenue into building local tech ecosystems.