Armenia has found itself at a unique point in technological development, where an opportunity is opening up before the country that comes along once in a generation or even once in a century. This was stated by NVIDIA Vice President Rev Lebaredian, speaking about the country’s prospects in the age of artificial intelligence.

A technological system for which demand is growing 

According to him, the world is now changing under the influence of a new technology that is gradually becoming the foundation of every industry, company, country, and individual life. He was referring to artificial intelligence — a technology that, as Lebaredian put it, makes it possible to turn electrons and electricity into intelligence.

“AI has been available to the general public for several years now, particularly after the emergence of ChatGPT. However, only now is it becoming clear just how serious the economic consequences of this technology are: artificial intelligence is beginning to perform real productive work and create economic value,” he noted.

This, in turn, is driving enormous demand for AI production. So-called artificial intelligence factories are appearing around the world, but even they are not yet enough. And, in Lebaredian’s opinion, it is a mistake to view AI only as a chatbot running on a web page.

Behind artificial intelligence itself stands an entire technological system consisting of several layers.

From energy to applications

Lebaredian calls energy the first and most fundamental level of this system. Without it, AI production is impossible, and the amount of available intelligence is directly limited by the amount of energy a country is capable of producing. That is why, in his opinion, one of Armenia’s main tasks should be to increase energy production. 

“The maximum amount of intelligence you can produce is limited by how much energy you have,” he noted. 

The next level is chips. According to him, they are what make it possible to turn electricity into computing and intelligence. And here Lebaredian sees an advantage for Armenia that far exceeds the country’s size. With a population of about three million people, Armenia, in his assessment, is disproportionately well represented in the field of chip design. Companies such as NVIDIA, Synopsys, Siemens, and Cadence are already operating in the country. In addition, companies engaged in chip design are present, including AMD, Broadcom, and Cisco.

The next level is infrastructure. It is needed to take the chips and build on their basis a computing infrastructure capable of producing AI at scale. According to Lebaredian, a significant foundation is already taking shape in Armenia here as well. As examples, he mentioned the Firebird and Elevate projects, adding that he has heard of other similar projects too.

But the final level in the entire chain is applications — it is they that turn technological potential into a concrete useful product. And here, in Lebaredian’s opinion, Armenia also has a serious foundation. The country’s potential in application development has been taking shape over the past 20 years, including alongside the development of DigiTec, which turns 21 this year.

Thus, he believes, Armenia already has the prerequisites to participate in all five levels of the new technological revolution — from energy and chips to infrastructure, models, and applications.

We cannot do this alone

However, the presence of individual elements does not yet mean that Armenia will automatically be able to take advantage of the opportunity that has opened up. Lebaredian considers the scale of the changes taking place to be the main constraint. 

“We cannot do this alone,” he emphasized, adding that the scale of the task is too great for any individual country or company.

In his view, current conditions in Armenia make it possible to begin building ties with neighboring countries and creating a broader ecosystem and partnerships. Thus, this is no longer only about developing Armenia’s technology sector within the country. Lebaredian is speaking about the possibility of forming a system that will be significantly greater than the capabilities of a single state or an individual company.