Big deals to sell chips to the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia have divided the U.S. government over whether they could be remembered for shipping cutting-edge A.I. overseas.The New York Times reports that the recent deals to sell chips to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have sparked controversy within the U.S. government. The deals, which were negotiated by President Trump and representatives from Silicon Valley, have transformed the Persian Gulf into a major player in the artificial intelligence industry.
According to sources familiar with the talks, the United States has agreed to deliver hundreds of thousands of advanced chips from Nvidia annually to the UAE, with a portion of the chips going to G42, an Emirati A.I. firm, and the rest to U.S. cloud service providers. The shipments are set to begin this year and will contribute to the construction of one of the world’s largest data center hubs in the region.
The Trump administration announced the agreement on Thursday, along with plans for a new A.I. campus in Abu Dhabi that will be supported by 5 gigawatts of electrical power. This project, which is expected to be the largest of its kind outside of the United States, will help U.S. companies serve customers in Africa, Europe, and Asia.
While the details of the chip deals have not been disclosed, there are concerns that the Trump administration may be prioritizing financial interests over national security by outsourcing the industry of the future to the Middle East. This has sparked divisions within the administration over A.I. policy.
The deals were negotiated by David Sacks, the administration’s A.I. czar, and Sriram Krishnan, its senior policy adviser for A.I., both of whom have backgrounds in venture capitalism. Other prominent figures in the A.I. industry, such as Sam Altman of OpenAI and Jensen Huang of Nvidia, have also been involved in talks during the president’s recent trip to the Middle East.
The U.S. has also struck multibillion dollar agreements to sell advanced chips from Nvidia and AMD to Saudi Arabia, and negotiations are ongoing for a larger contract for A.I. technology. The Trump administration’s eagerness to make deals in a region where the president and his family have financial ties has raised questions about the potential consequences of outsourcing the A.I. industry to the Middle East.
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