The U.S. and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are working on a plan to allow Abu Dhabi to purchase some of the most advanced American-made semiconductors for its AI development, according to U.S. President Donald Trump. During a breakfast event at the U.S.-UAE Business Council, Trump mentioned that the two countries had agreed on a path for the UAE to buy some of the world’s most advanced AI semiconductors from American companies, referring to a reported preliminary agreement permitting the import of 500,000 Nvidia H100 chips annually. This would significantly boost the UAE’s ability to construct data centers for its AI models. The UAE has heavily invested in AI infrastructure aiming to become a global hub for the technology, relying on U.S. semiconductors. Previously, national security concerns prevented these chips from reaching Washington’s Arab Gulf allies. The Trump administration plans to rescind a Biden-era ‘AI diffusion rule’ that imposed strict export controls on advanced AI chips, even to friendly nations. Some security professionals and lawmakers, including some within the Trump administration, worry that removing these limits could allow sensitive technology to fall into rivals’ hands, such as China’s. This announcement follows the White House’s partnership with the UAE to build a massive AI campus in Abu Dhabi, described as the largest outside the U.S., developed by Emirati tech firm G42 in collaboration with several U.S. companies.
— new from CNBC
