Trump-Brokered Deal Gives UAE Access to Nvidia Chips, To Build Largest AI Campus Outside U.S.

The United Arab Emirates have concluded a historic agreement with the United States to build what will be the largest artificial intelligence campus outside American borders-an agreement concluded during the recent visit by Donald Trump in the Gulf and praised as a turning point in American-UAE technological cooperation.

However, he also aroused concerns in Washington as to the possibility of Chinese access to advanced AI of American origin.

At the heart of the agreement is a massive campus of 10 square miles in Abu Dhabi, with a power capacity of 5 gigawatt dedicated to data centers that will execute workloads of advanced artificial intelligence. The campus will be built by G42, an Emirati company supported by the State, but according to the US trade department, US companies will operate data centers and provide cloud services managed by the United States in the region.

“US companies will operate data centers and offer cloud services managed by the Americans throughout the region,” said US Secretary for Commerce Howard Lutnick.

The agreement also includes American technological companies Qualcomm and Amazon Web Services (AWS), which will associate with water entities to develop IA infrastructure, strengthening cybersecurity and accelerating the regional adoption of the cloud. AWS will focus on building secure cloud systems, while Qualcomm is expected to set up an AI engineering center.

A major breakdown of technological restrictions in the Biden era

This agreement marks a brutal gap in the prudent position adopted under President Joe Biden, whose administration has restricted the exports of ia fleas to countries like the United Arab Emirates out of concern that such technologies could find their way in Chinese hands.

Under the direction of Trump, these restrictions are taken off. His newly appointed AI tsar, David Sacks, speaking in Riyadh earlier this week, criticized the controls of the Biden era, declaring that they were “never intended to capture friends, allies, strategic partners”. He added that an intelligent approach is to give us access to allies to key technologies while maintaining surveillance.

At the heart of the agreement is access to the most advanced chips of Nvidia – an active active in the AI ​​race. Although the specific models have not been publicly disclosed, Reuters reported that water will be authorized to import up to 500,000 of the high -end NVIDIA chips from 2025.

The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was seen in television images with Trump and the President of the Water, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during meetings of the Qasr Al Watan palace in Abu Dhabi. The optics underlines the level of coordination between the technological industry giants and the new Trump administration in the training of global AI infrastructure.

A victory for water, but at what price?

For water, agreement is a major breakthrough. The country of the Gulf has long been ambitions to become a global AI power. He paid billions into AI investments through state -related vehicles such as G42 and MGX, while running partnerships with the best Western companies.

Until now, its ambitions have been reduced by American export controls, which has limited access to the most powerful fleas and the G42 has forced to relax partnerships with Chinese technological companies. Under pressure from Washington, G42 would have started to dismantle Huawei’s infrastructure in its systems and sold certain Chinese investments. These actions paved the way for Thursday’s announcement.

“This change allows [the UAE] To deepen its technological partnership with the United States while preserving trade links with China, “said Mohammed Soliman, principal researcher at the Middle East Institute.

“This does not mean abandoning China, but it means to recalibrate the technological strategy to align with American standards and protocols where it most counts: the chains of calculation, cloud and chips.”

The agreement also undertakes the United Arab Emirates to build, finance or invest in AI data centers in the United States which are “at least as large and powerful” as those developed in Abu Dhabi. The White House said that this guarantees a balance of capacity while creating technological jobs at the national level.

In addition, the agreement includes “historical commitments” by water to align its national security regulations with the United States, according to information sheets published by the Trump administration. These include “solid protections to prevent the diversion of American -original technology” – a barely veiled reference to the fears of re -export to China.

Persistent concern about China

However, the agreement has disrupted some in Washington and among American national circles, which argue that technological flight remains a real threat, in particular given the long -standing ties of the United Arab Emirates with China. Huawei and Alibaba Cloud, two of the Chinese technology giants, still maintain a visible presence in water, which raises concerns about potential overlap or access to the stolen door.

An investigation by Reuters earlier this year revealed that IA fleas had been introduced as a smuggling of water, Singapore and Malaysia in China, bypassing the export restrictions intended to cut Beijing access to advanced semiconductors. This report is now re -examined in the light of the new agreement.

National security analysts warn that even with American companies that manage operations, risks persist.

Despite this, the CEOs of American technology technologies – from Sam Altman from Openai to Huang de Nvidia – expressed their support for the agreement. China developing its own advanced AI models and personalized chips, the possibility of extending American platforms worldwide through friendly partners is considered a strategic and economic victory.

The agreement caps of months of diplomatic engagement and high -level business. The AI ​​was a major objective when Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed went to Washington in December, just a few days before Biden’s departure. Since then, Emirati investment companies have increased their exposure to American AI startups, including the XAI of Openai and Elon Musk.

Microsoft, another major player in space, announced an investment of $ 1.5 billion in the G42 last year, suggesting a coordinated thrust to integrate AI Amien technology in the Middle East while braking Chinese influence.

Trump’s visit to the region and the series of agreements that followed report a broader strategic reset. It is considered a recalibration aimed at ensuring that the United States retains influence in the infrastructure of global AI while extending its technological scope beyond its borders.