Washington clears some Nvidia chip exports to UAE under new AI pact: The US has given the greenlight to export several USD bns worth of Nvidia chips to the UAE, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The export agreement is the first of its kind to a Gulf nation since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Why now? The sources said the agreement came on the back of bilateral AI negotiations in May, as well as definitive plans from the UAE to invest in US AI infrastructure. The Emirates had previously committed to invest USD 1.4 tn into US AI infrastructure over ten years.

How many? The exact number and value of the chips earmarked for export haven’t been disclosed yet, however earlier reports expected the Emirates to see up to 500k annually of the US tech giant’s most advanced chips up until 2027. State AI firm G42 was initially reported to secure one-fifth of these.

HOWEVER- Initial shipments will not include any chips for G42, despite the fact that it is a core part of the US-UAE AI partnership, which will see the two countries develop the Stargate UAE initiative, set to be the first deployment of the US’ wider USD 500 bn Stargate infrastructure platform, and which will be part of a wider 5 GW US-UAE AI data center cluster in Abu Dhabi and host US tenants including OpenAI.

The approved export batch instead covers other US-linked data infrastructure in the Emirates. The value of chips the UAE will receive will reportedly match the UAE’s investments in US AI infrastructure on a USD-for-USD basis.

Background: The US had initially restricted the export of US AI chips and GPUs to 120 countries, including the UAE, citing security concerns that the technology could end up being used by China. Trump, however, recently introduced a diversion from this policy with an AI chip export program. Emirati players like G42 divested from China in an attempt to secure exports and National Security Advisor and G42 Chair Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan led negotiations at the start of the year to advocate for eased access to advanced chips — crucial to the Emirates’ efforts to position itself as an AI and data center hub.

Nvidia has since announced plans to open up its first Nvidia AI Technology Center in the region in the UAE in partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute. The center is set to access Nvidia’s Thor chip, which is designed to enable advanced robotic systems development

Tags: