The US paid for a peace deal in Nvidia chips

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When Armenia opened the biggest AI factory in its region last month, we filed it under compute diplomacy. The Wall Street Journal now reports what the compute actually bought.

Robbie Whelan reported on Friday that US negotiators used the promise of access to Nvidia’s AI chips to help secure a peace deal. Armenia and Azerbaijan reached that preliminary agreement last year. His sources are people involved in the talks.

The inducement, specifically, was expanded approval for chip purchases for an Armenian data centre project. The Journal says that detail had not been reported before. It calls the arrangement one of the most striking instances so far of what US officials are calling chip diplomacy.

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