Source: The Next Web
The US is deploying semiconductor allocation as hard currency in geopolitical negotiations, offering Armenia advanced AI chips as leverage in its dispute with Azerbaijan. This reveals how compute capacity has become a fungible asset in great power competition. Washington can gift chips to strategic allies while simultaneously restricting China's access, using TSMC and Nvidia's production as an extension of foreign policy rather than purely commercial entities. Armenia's new AI factory becomes less about domestic capability and more about the US securing influence in the South Caucasus at the intersection of Russian, Chinese, and European interests.