The US approved Nvidia’s sale of advanced chips to Armenia late last month as part of a $500 million AI data center that’ll see 20% of its capacity reserved for Armenian companies and the remaining 80% sold to US-based firms doing business in the region according to Bloomberg. These ambitious tech plans build upon Armenia’s rich Soviet-era technological legacy, early tech education for children, and impending national high tech strategy, but there’s actually much more to them than a simple business opportunity.
This move comes shortly after the US “poached” Armenia from Russia’s sphere of influence by replacing its role in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process, which took the form of brokering August’s peace declaration between the two. Armenia also agreed to the creation of the US-controlled “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP) along its southern border. TRIPP is expected to lead to the Turkish-led injection of Western influence across the South Caucasus and into Central Asia.
It’s therefore not for naught that two US think tank experts recently co-authored an article in the Washington Post where they argued for increased American engagement with Armenia as the strongly insinuated means for more effectively containing Russia. Tech wasn’t mentioned in connection with this, but there’s a compelling logic behind why this new AI data center was chosen as the flagship project of their new relations, which will be led by a new joint Armenian-American company, Firebird.AI.
The “Fourth Industrial Revolution”/“Great Reset” (4IR/GR), which is centered on the interconnected trends of AI, Big Data, and the Internet of Things, is driving the cutting-edge economic-technological developments across the world that the US envisages leading per July’s AI Action Plan. One month later at the end of August, several weeks after the US-mediated Armenian-Azerbaijani peace declaration and TRIPP, Armenia and the US signed an MoU “regarding an AI and Semiconductor Innovation Partnership”.
This was followed by the US approving Firebird.AI’s ambitious plan to set up a $500 million Nvidia-powered AI data center for US-based firms in the region, thus leveraging Armenia’s location to turn it into a bastion of US 4IR/GR influence in this part of Eurasia. The goal is to solidify the US’ influence over the South Caucasus and then have Armenia serve as the launchpad for expanding the tech dimension thereof into Central Asia in parallel with TRIPP’s expansion of US economic and military influence.
Some Armenian companies will benefit from this but the nation as a whole won’t. Its people’s digital-tech sovereignty is being ceded to the US since their data will be stored on Dell servers. Socio-political trends can then be analyzed by CIA algorithms for helping the US fine-tune propaganda for accelerating Armenia’s pivot away from Russia. Of relevance, the first phase of the AI data center will be operational in the second quarter of next year, which is around the time of Armenia’s next parliamentary elections.
The Carnegie think tank declared last month that “Armenia’s Election Is a Foreign Affair” in their piece urging de facto meddling in support of Pashinyan. The planned AI data center is expected to play a role in this as was explained. Keeping him in power isn’t just about solidifying the US’ new sphere of influence at Russia’s expense, which will be costly for Armenia since Russia is its top trade partner, but enabling the US to transform this facility into a regional AI-assisted spy hub as part of a new Eurasian power play.
