The U.S. is moving toward a deal that would let the United Arab Emirates import up to 500,000 of Nvidia's (NVDA, Financials) top AI chips annually starting in 2025, according to Reuters.
Of that, 100,000 chips would go to G42, an Abu Dhabi-based firm backed by sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake. The rest would be split between American companies like Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) and Oracle (ORCL, Financials), which are also exploring Gulf data center expansions.
The deal, still in draft form, would run through 2027 and could extend to 2030. It includes a condition that for every data center G42 builds in the UAE, it must build one in the U.S.
The Biden-era cap on chip exports limited the UAE's compute access, but President Donald Trump's administration plans to reverse those restrictions. On his Gulf tour this week, Trump also announced $600 billion in Saudi investment commitments, including large orders from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Financials), and Qualcomm (QCOM, Financials).
If finalized, the UAE could emerge as a third AI superpower, joining the U.S. and China. Still, some in the U.S. government are wary, and negotiations continue over what counts as an “advanced” chip and how security will be handled.
The chips in question may include Nvidia's Blackwell and Rubin GPUs, both more powerful than the Hopper line.
