NVIDIA Vice President Rev Lebaredyan, speaking to ARKA news agency on the sidelines of the DigiTec-2025 forum held in Yerevan, discussed how Armenia can become the center of the new AI industry, strengthen national security through AI, and how the construction of an AI Data Center can help in the fight for technological sovereignty. YEREVAN, October 13. /ARKA/. NVIDIA Vice President Rev Lebaredyan, speaking to ARKA news agency on the sidelines of the DigiTec-2025 forum held in Yerevan, discussed how Armenia can become the center of the new AI industry, strengthen national security through AI, and how the construction of an AI Data Center can help in the fight for technological sovereignty.

- Mr. Lebaredyan, in the context of the $500 million AI data center planned for Armenia, which NVIDIA is participating in, what, in your opinion, will be the key factor in its success: technology, personnel, or infrastructure?

- All of these factors together. Look, when you build an "AI factory," it requires massive infrastructure, just like building power plants, roads, factories, and airports. This requires bringing together many components. Therefore, the most important thing is to first and foremost provide energy. Without energy, everything else becomes meaningless. And that's the hardest part. Fortunately, Armenia has excess energy, but we can't do anything with it -- it's impossible to export electricity.

- Actually, we do.

- A little, but it's very difficult. Electricity can't be transported over long distances -- the further you go, the greater the loss. And you can't store it either. So, if we generate excess energy and no one needs it, we have to reduce production.

But if we use this energy for an "AI factory," we can convert it into intelligence that can be sold to anyone in the world online.

- The center is planned to be equipped with thousands of NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. What tasks of this scale can be solved on this platform?

- They can be used for any AI task. There is currently a huge demand for computing power for all the artificial intelligence systems used by people and companies -- OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI with Grok, and others.

OpenAI is making major deals around the world to provide access to computing resources. And we'll be able to sell this power to anyone who wants it, no matter where they are.

- Does NVIDIA see Armenia as a regional hub for technology, science, and education?

- Absolutely. Despite being a small country with a difficult geographic location, landlocked, with closed borders, and having experienced war, look how the high-tech sector, GDP, productivity, and the economy as a whole have grown over the past five years. It's simply miraculous.

Despite all the obstacles, Armenia is succeeding. Walk the streets of Yerevan -- there's traffic, people, cars everywhere, because everyone is working and producing. The last slide of my presentation was a wall of logos of Armenian companies working in AI. That's impressive for such a small country.

Now that peace is returning to the country and there's the prospect of opening borders, all the previous "slowdowns" on the economy and technological development will disappear. And if we were able to achieve all this with such limitations, then when opportunities open up, we should grow many times over.

- There's growing talk around the world about technological sovereignty. Do you think countries like Armenia can build their own AI infrastructures without dependence on major powers?

- Of course. Every country should have one. If you believe that AI is the most powerful technology of our time, and perhaps even of human history, then every country is obligated to master this technology. And that requires its own infrastructure.

It was the same with electricity: at first, only the United States and a few European countries could produce it. But over time, each country built its own power plants and networks.

The same thing happened with roads, bridges, telecoms, airports -- every country is creating the basic infrastructure.

And it's the same with intelligence infrastructure. We'll be lucky if we get it in Armenia before anyone else. If we can leverage this advantage, our companies, universities, and citizens will be able to master the skills, learn how to build, and develop this system before anyone else.

- Can we say that the construction of this AI center will strengthen Armenia's security, taking into account the interests of various parties?

- Of course. If we become more productive and useful to other countries, then there will be more reasons for them to care about Armenia's existence and prosperity.

Armenia's problem has always been that we ask for help, but often provide no value to those we ask.

People help us out of compassion, sympathy for our culture, language, and history. But that's not how it works.

The best way to ensure peace and security is to have economic ties, to be significant to others. And this must be done not only with major powers, but with all our neighbors. The only way to achieve sustainable peace is to make even our neighbors interested in our stability.

- What are your expectations from DigiTec? Are you counting on new agreements or partnerships?

- Absolutely. I think that as we speak, new connections are already being formed that will lead to partnerships, deals, and the creation of companies. Many investors and venture capitalists I meet at the forum talk about their investments and new startups. That's exactly how it works.

People are social creatures. We need to meet and communicate in person to exchange ideas and information. This is the only way to build strong connections that become the foundation of economic relations.

That's why DigiTec and similar conferences are so important.

- What's your impression of the Armenian IT ecosystem? What does the sector need to develop?

- In a regional context, the Armenian IT sector is more developed than its neighbors. But everyone is working to catch up. If we don't do anything, they will catch up -- in two, five years, I don't know when, but they will. And that's good -- we want everyone to develop.

But we mustn't stop. We can't be satisfied with being "the best in the region."

Technology is constantly evolving. If you stop, you lose. We need to constantly look ahead, understand what's next, and prepare for it in advance.

That's why I'm promoting the idea of building AI infrastructure in Armenia. The next step is to become a global center for fundamental research in computer science and technology.

Our universities must be known as the best in the world, at least in certain areas. To achieve this, we need to select a few narrow, strategic areas and attract the world's best researchers.

We can invite them through the AI center: offer access to a supercomputer, a lab, and interact with talented students. Let them come for 6-12 months, teach and conduct research here. This way, we'll plant the seed of science that will grow into global achievements and spawn startups.

Fortunately, the world has changed. To conduct fundamental research in computer science today, you need a supercomputer. Even universities like Harvard and Stanford don't have their own supercomputer facilities. Their researchers come to NVIDIA -- to work for me -- to gain access to the necessary tools. If such a supercomputer appears in Armenia, we'll gain a temporary advantage. We need to use it to build an ecosystem that will elevate us to the top.-0-