Huawei is bidding to supply Egypt’s AI infrastructure — Washington is trying to stop it

Good afternoon, ladies and gents, and congratulations on making it to the long weekend. Can’t stop scrolling? We’ve broken down everything that’s been happening with Meta’s latest addiction case, how it might impact the platforms we’ve come to be inseparable from, and how those changes might manifest in Om El Donia.

Elsewhere in today’s issue: a thought-provoking memoir on marriage, infidelity, and societal expectations. Plus, everything happening on the pitch over the long weekend.

A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE- EnterprisePM will be off tomorrow in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday (El Mawlid El Nabawy). We’ll be back in your inboxes on Sunday. Until then, enjoy the long weekend.

Without further ado, the news…

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

📍 Beijing and Washington are going head-to-head for a gov’t AI contract in Egypt: In a bid on a government tender, tech giant Huawei — the closest thing China has to Nvidia — is offering to export roughly 1.4k of its newest Ascend 950-series chips for an AI training cloud in Egypt, plus 600 more (either 950s or the earlier 910B) to run two inference clusters, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter as well as documents it reviewed. The end users are government, spanning military, security, and surveillance functions — the documents lay out a 12-month build.

US government officials called Silicon Valley to mount a rival bid: The State Department is said to have approached Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft about putting together an American consortium to bid against Huawei after officials saw the Chinese offer. All three declined to comment, and neither the Egyptian government nor Huawei responded to Bloomberg’s questions on the tender.

REFRESHER- The Communications Ministry has said it is targeting EGP 115.4 bn in private and foreign investment in ICT in FY 2026/27 (83.1% of the EGP 138.9 bn total it wants for the sector). A document seen by EnterpriseAM puts national AI funding at USD 420 mn to USD 860 mn covering infrastructure, data centers, skills, and governance, and the ministry is preparing to market data center and cloud sites to international tech firms. We hosted 14 data centers as of mid-2025, or 5.5% of the regional total.

The bid comes with a surveillance layer. Huawei is proposing to deliver alongside iFlytek — the Chinese voice and facial-recognition outfit that’s been on the US entity list since 2019. The documents describe systems that identify individuals and vehicles against national databases, plus integrated urban monitoring that the company pitches as a “panoramic view of the city.”

Why a Chinese offer is on the table at all: We don’t fabricate chips, and the American channel has needed a permission slip since October 2023, when Washington extended advanced chip licensing requirements to some 40 countries, Egypt among them. Beijing, meanwhile, has only recently started offering its top-end silicon abroad. There’s a catch on the Chinese side, too: US Commerce warned in May 2025 that using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world breaches its export controls, naming the 910B — one of the two models in Huawei’s offer.

The US route has a price tag. G42 divested from Huawei and cut ties with Chinese tech firms to earn its US partnership and clear the way for chip exports, before Commerce moved the UAE into its allies-only export tier in July.

IN OTHER NEWS- Beloved Catalonian football club Barcelona’s newest global partner is none other than EgyptAir. The Egyptian airline has announced a three-season partnership with the Spanish club, becoming its “Global Partner” and “Exclusive Official Airline Partner” for men’s first football, basketball, and handball teams through the 2028/29 season, according to a statement. The airline’s logo will also be featured on Barcelona’s jerseys.

WATCH THIS SPACE- President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is set to receive his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping “in the coming days,” according to an official statement. El Sisi and Xi will discuss a number of strategic partnership windows between both countries, as well as both regional and international matters, the statement said. The visit’s exact date and duration were not disclosed. We’ll have more updates in next week’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

The EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum is back — and we’re devoting the full day to the singular set of questions on everyone’s mind: What does AI actually mean for your company, your people, your economy, your own job — and your kids’ future?

Every session on stage answers one question: “So, what do I actually do about it?”

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Seats are limited and attendance is by invitation only.

Request your invitation here.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 Leading the digital front pages this afternoon is not the US-Iran war, nor the Canada-US trade dispute, but rather Dolly Parton. Throughout the world, the late American artist, philanthropist, and “Queen of Country” is getting top billing following her passing at the age of 80 on Tuesday. The singer died peacefully following a “brief battle with cancer,” according to a statement by her family. US President Donald Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff throughout the country for a week.

^^ Read more on: The Washington Post, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Associated Press, and The New York Times.

On the US-Iran front: Tehran and Muscat have reportedly put together a joint proposal to establish a temporary shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz as traffic remains at a near-halt. This comes as the US enforces “the toughest sanctions in history,” in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s words, on Tehran. Diplomatic efforts between both countries remain stalled, with Tehran reportedly expanding its defense capabilities, according to army commander Alireza Elhami.

^^Read more on: Reuters and CNN.

IN CLIMATE NEWS- Powerful flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border have left at least 17 dead after an excessive amount of snow melted into the Bhote Koshi river near the Chinese border. Over 400 individuals — including tourists — are missing.

^^Read more on: Reuters, CNN, and BBC.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Egypt and Saudi Arabia are in the final stages of technical and operational trials on their 3-GW electricity interconnection, with the results of precision voltage, frequency, and other technical measurements set to determine the timing of commercial operation. Pre-operation trials are expected to conclude by the end of August;
• The Finance Ministry and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) have worked out how the new tax on natural gas will actually get paid. The EGPC — not gas suppliers, and not households — will be the one writing the check. The EGPC will issue the e-invoices and forward the owed tax to the Egyptian Tax Authority within 10 days of each payment becoming due;
• Nasdaq-listed, Dubai-based mobility startup Swvl Holdings entered into a definitive agreement for a USD 13 mn private placement priced at the market under Nasdaq rules. The round is led by Coefficient LP, a Houston-based investment firm backed by the Sawiris family, which is putting in USD 10 mn and will become Swvl’s largest institutional shareholder upon closing. An existing shareholder is contributing the remaining USD 3 mn;
• North Africa-focused private equity firm RMBV’s North Africa Fund III has closed six agreements and lined up seven or eight more, as the fund pushes toward a 10-12 investment portfolio spanning Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. RMBV has deployed approximately USD 300 mn since holding NAF III’s first close in mid-2025.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Cairo continues to swelter under the summer heat tomorrow, with highs reaching a scorching 39°C and a low of 26°C. As for the North Coast, the weather remains pleasant — albeit humid — with highs of 33°C and an overnight low of 25°C, according to our favorite weather app.