First Stage Adds Blackwell Compute Capacity
Firebird's operating site, identified by the company as DC-1, currently consists of 6,144 NVIDIA B200 GPUs across 15 MW of capacity. The facility uses liquid cooling and was constructed around NVIDIA's reference architecture for large-scale AI and high-performance computing workloads.
The first phase represents a significant increase in Armenia's domestic access to advanced computing infrastructure. In June, before the facility opened, Armenia's Ministry of High-Tech Industry said the initial stage involved $500 million in investment and would contain more than 6,000 Blackwell GPUs. The ministry at the time described a planned 18 MW configuration, while Firebird's current infrastructure specifications list DC-1 at 15 MW.
Large GPU clusters are used to train and run increasingly computationally intensive AI models, but the Hrazdan project is designed for more than model training. Government and company disclosures have identified scientific research, engineering simulations, robotics, aerospace, biomedical applications and enterprise computing among the workloads the infrastructure could support. Firebird is also offering computing capacity commercially through its cloud and dedicated-server operations.
NVIDIA Joins Firebird as Expansion Plans Grow
The opening was accompanied by another development for Firebird: NVIDIA said it intends to invest in the company. NVIDIA's planned investment follows an investment by AI cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave earlier in 2026.
The Armenia operation is now expected to move through additional phases. Firebird said its three-phase plan would take the country beyond 70,000 NVIDIA Blackwell and next-generation Rubin GPUs by the end of 2027, alongside 300 MW of infrastructure capacity. Reaching them would represent a sharp increase from the 6,144 GPUs operating at DC-1 today.
Earlier plans provide additional context for the scale of that expansion. Armenia's High-Tech Ministry said in June that more than 41,000 GPUs were expected to be added during the project's second phase, with total investment reaching approximately $4 billion. Firebird had previously said it secured U.S. export authorization covering advanced NVIDIA hardware destined for Armenia.
Perplexity Emerges as Early Customer
Firebird has already named one customer for the new computing capacity. NVIDIA said Perplexity is working with Firebird to access infrastructure supporting its answer engine and AI agent platform. Firebird separately described Perplexity as one of the first customers of the Armenian facility.
The project also involves a wider group of infrastructure suppliers. Dell PowerEdge servers are being used for the computing systems, while Schneider Electric supplied electrical infrastructure including switchgear and uninterruptible power systems. Vertiv provided cooling technology for the site. NVIDIA said the facility was delivered in just over six months and uses its DSX architecture, which integrates computing, networking, power and cooling components for large AI installations.
Armenia is only one part of Firebird's planned expansion. The company has also identified Kazakhstan as its second market and said it has secured 125 MW of capacity there. Firebird is targeting approximately 2 GW of AI infrastructure across Armenia, Kazakhstan and other markets by the end of 2028.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the inauguration alongside Kazakhstan Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev and U.S. Chargé d'Affaires David Allen. Their attendance came one year after Armenia and the United States signed a memorandum covering cooperation in artificial intelligence and semiconductor technology.
Firebird now faces the larger task of converting its expansion plans into operating capacity. Moving from 6,144 GPUs and 15 MW at the first site to more than 70,000 GPUs and 300 MW in Armenia would require substantially more computing hardware, electrical infrastructure and cooling capacity.
