[News] U.S. Reportedly to Greenlight Millions of NVIDIA’s Most Cutting-Edge AI Chips for UAE from 2025-27

Shortly after Trump has dethroned Biden’s proposed AI Diffusion rules, the UAE has reportedly emerged as the first to strike a breakthrough deal with Washington. According to Reuters, the U.S. will allow the country to import 500,000 of NVIDIA’s most advanced AI chips annually starting in 2025, with the agreement likely running through 2027—and possibly until 2030.

Notably, the move would supercharge the UAE’s race to build out data centers crucial for training next-gen AI models, as it targets NVIDIA’s most powerful GPUs—likely including the latest Blackwell chips and possibly the upcoming Rubin lineup, which outpace both Blackwell and the earlier Hopper generation, as per Reuters.

Reuters and Bloomberg suggests that under the draft deal, 20% of the chips (or 100,000 of the total) would go to UAE tech firm G42 each year, while the rest would be shared by U.S. giants like Microsoft, Oracle, and possibly OpenAI — which may unveil new UAE data center plans as early as this week.

This is not the only commitment Trump has made during his current visit in Gulf this week. According to CNBC, Trump announced $600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia, including major chip deals with NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm—part of his broader push to deepen ties with Gulf nations.

G42’s Huawei Links Spark Concerns

Reuters points out that under the draft UAE deal, G42’s share of NVIDIA chips would deliver up to four times the compute power previously allowed under Biden-era export rules. Additionally, if these chip deals across the Gulf—especially in the UAE—materialize, the region could emerge as a third AI powerhouse alongside the U.S. and China, as per the report.

However, G42’s rise has sparked fresh concerns over whether the company—or Gulf nations more broadly—could serve as backdoors for China to access advanced AI chips, Bloomberg reports. While G42 dropped ties with Huawei under Biden to land a $1.5 billion Microsoft deal, some at the Pentagon still aren’t convinced it’s fully distanced from Beijing, according to Bloomberg.

According to Reuters, G42 is backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, U.S. firm Silver Lake, and chaired by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon.

For years, Washington has urged allies to exclude Huawei from their telecom networks, and as AI rivalry intensifies, the Middle East has become a key battleground in the tech clash between the U.S. and China, as noted by a previous Reuters report.

The report suggested that under an April, 2024 deal, G42 would run its AI applications on Microsoft’s cloud, with both firms pledging security measures to the U.S. and UAE. The agreement reportedly includes safeguards, such as removing Chinese equipment—including Huawei’s—from G42’s operations.

Read more

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• [News] If Trump Scraps AI Diffusion Rules: 3 Things to Watch – Chip Diversion, Middle East Moves and More

(Photo credit: NVIDIA)