UAE in line for mns of Nvidia agreement under potential US agreement: The US is preparing to grant the UAE and Saudi Arabia expanded access to advanced AI chips and high-performance semiconductors from Nvidia and AMD, under two separate agreements expected to be announced during President Donald Trump’s current Gulf visit, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

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The US is reportedly eyeing a setup that could allow mns of Nvidia chips to be imported by the UAE, which would far exceed the limits in place since former US President Joe Biden’s AI export curbs, Bloomberg reported separately, citing sources familiar with the matter. The potential agreement — which is still being discussed — could let the UAE import 500k of the most advanced chips on the market each year from now to 2027, according to the sources. One-fifth of those would go to state AI firm G42, while the remainder would go to US companies building data centers in the UAE, according to the people.

G42 would see some chips delivered directly, while others may come by way of a new partnership between G42 and ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the Washington Post reported, without disclosing further details on the partnership.

Is OpenAI mulling a UAE data center? According to Bloomberg, which cites sources in the know, the company is exploring adding data center capacity in the UAE as part of a push in the region. Its backer, Microsoft, already has a hyperscale data center coming up in the UAE, courtesy of state telco du.

The UAE has deep ties with OpenAI: Abu Dhabi AI investor MGX participated in OpenAI’s USD 6.6 bn funding round in October, and the two firms are contributing to a USD 100 bn AI infrastructure fund alongside Softbank and Oracle.

Background: The Biden-era caps, which were set to come into effect today, would have required companies to apply for a license in order to receive AI chips, with a cap of some 320k GPUs over two years.

For KSA, provisions under discussion include US oversight of chip usage and data center access, as well as the creation of “data embassies” — sovereign cloud zones exempt from local data laws — to address concerns over potential Chinese access, WaPo reports. Similar terms could apply to the anticipated UAE agreement.

G42 has already been receiving AI chips from the US, after a USD 1.5 bn investment from Microsoft paved the way for the shipments. The US approved advanced AI chip exports to a Microsoft-run facility in the UAE as part of the partnership with G42 — after the two reached an agreement to prevent access to the facility by personnel from countries with US arms embargoes, or who are on the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, including China, and to lock the facility down with US defense tech.

REMEMBER- The US and the UAE were set to discuss a potential chip agreement during Trump’s visit to the UAE this week. The UAE is a key partner to the US, with some USD 1.4 tn in investments in US tech and energy sectors pledged over the next decade.

The US and the UAE are big trade partners: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) accounted for 54% of total US-Middle East trade in 1Q 2025, reaching USD 18.8 bn out of a regional total of USD 34.7 bn, according to US Census Bureau data cited by Asharq Business. The UAE was the US’ top Gulf trading partner at USD 8.8 bn, followed by Saudi Arabia at USD 5.8 bn.

Zooming out: Total trade between the US and its top 10 Middle East partners reached USD 146.4 bn in 2024. Once again, the UAE led with USD 34.4 bn, with Saudi Arabia following at USD 25.9 bn. The US maintains surpluses with most partners, driven by exports in technology, aviation, and energy.

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