American negotiators promised to expand Armenia's access to modern Nvidia AI chips as part of efforts to reach a preliminary peace agreement with Azerbaijan. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing participants in the negotiations. Specifically, the discussion involved expanding permits for the purchase of advanced accelerators for the Armenian project Firebird AI Factory.

WSJ calls this approach "chip diplomacy," where access to advanced technologies becomes a foreign policy tool. However, previously, a direct link between export permits for American AI chips and the peace process was not publicly reported. Firebird AI Factory in Hrazdan was officially launched on August 8, 2026, and after the completion of the third phase of the project by the end of 2027, its capacity is planned to increase to over 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell and Vera Rubin GPUs and over 400 MW.

The project has already received support from Nvidia, which announced its intention to invest in Armenian AI infrastructure. In addition, in April, the Armenian Ministry of High-Tech Industry and Firebird concluded an agreement for the state to purchase high-performance computing resources worth $25 million over five years. According to WSJ, the Firebird story shows how closely US technology policy and export controls are beginning to intertwine with international diplomacy.