Firebird, the US and Armenia-based AI infrastructure company, announced on May 29 a national education partnership that will bring frontier artificial intelligence tools to 50,000 students, teachers, and researchers across Armenia, alongside the launch of an ambitious new venture platform called Firebird Labs. The initiative is run in partnership with Armenia’s Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, with OpenAI supporting it through technology access, team support, and API credits.
The partnership marks a significant moment in Armenia’s emergence as a center for AI-driven education and innovation. It expands access to advanced AI tools across the country’s engineering and research community and folds Armenia into a group of leading nations adopting Codex and ChatGPT Edu, OpenAI’s offering built for academic institutions with enterprise-grade security and controls. The rollout follows successful implementations at institutions including Harvard University and the University of Oxford, and is designed to help universities and educators integrate AI into teaching and research.
For Firebird’s co-founders, the effort is an investment in Armenia’s long-term future. “Armenia has extraordinary talent, and giving students, educators, and researchers access to the world’s most advanced AI tools can help unlock a new generation of innovators and builders,” said co-founder Alexander Yesayan, who stressed that the significance of the initiative lay in the partnership behind it. “This is about more than technology, it’s about Armenia’s future.”
Co-founder and CEO Razmig Hovaghimian pointed to the country’s deep engineering talent and government backing as the foundation for the project. “With Firebird Labs, we aim to give a new generation of builders access to frontier AI models and world-class compute infrastructure so they can innovate and compete on equal footing with the world’s leading AI teams,” he said.
OpenAI’s International Education Lead, Jayna Devani, said the collaboration unites Armenia’s talent base with frontier tools such as ChatGPT and Codex and practical support for the academic community. She described intelligence as “becoming a national utility,” with education central to ensuring people have both the tools and the skills to use them well.
Armenia’s government welcomed the move. Zhanna Andreasyan, Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport, said the country sees its future in technological development built on a strong and modern education system. The introduction of ChatGPT Edu and AI-driven learning environments, she said, brings Armenia closer to leading global institutions where such technologies are already transforming education, and represents “an important step in preparing a new generation of professionals who will not only use technology, but help shape its future.”
The second pillar of the announcement, Firebird Labs, is an innovation platform set to launch in the third quarter of 2026. It will invest in, incubate, and co-develop high-ambition technical ventures across three strategic verticals: robotics and physical AI, aerospace, and life sciences. The platform plans to back five ventures per year, working with deeply technical teams over longer time horizons than a traditional startup program.
Selected participants, known as Frontier Fellows, will receive a comprehensive set of resources from Firebird, including:
- Access to the latest OpenAI technology, including Codex and API credits, to build during an upcoming hackathon
- Mentoring and technical support from both Firebird and OpenAI
- Dedicated GPU capacity from Firebird, scaling up to 1,000 GPUs reserved for Frontier Fellows in 2027
- Structured research partnerships with leading Armenian, US, and European universities
- Firebird’s operational infrastructure, physical workspace, and ecosystem support in partnership with the AI9 Startup Campus
- Participation in hackathons, global events, and potential investment opportunities
Details on the upcoming hackathons, the competitive selection process, and how to apply will be announced at a later stage. Participants will also gain access to major international events and may be considered for joint investment from Firebird and its global partner network.
Firebird Labs is oriented around original research, technical breakthroughs, and company formation on cutting-edge compute infrastructure. As the company puts it, Armenia’s combination of engineering talent, government commitment, clean energy, and high-potential infrastructure makes it one of the few places outside the major AI centers capable of producing globally competitive frontier companies.
The announcement rests on infrastructure Firebird has been building in Armenia over the past year. The company holds US government export authorization and operates one of the largest GPU clusters in Europe, with the capacity to scale to 250 megawatts by 2027. Its Phase 2 expansion in Armenia, announced in February 2026, targets $4 billion in investment and 50,000 GPUs by the end of the year. Firebird describes its mission as democratizing access to advanced AI computing, enabling innovation across research and enterprise in both the private and public sectors.
