Learn extra at:
What simply occurred? Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar AI partnerships between US firms and Gulf nations have been criticized by those that worry it may open a backdoor for China to entry restricted chips. However OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would not assume so, and has labeled these with such considerations as “naïve.”
Throughout his tour of the realm final week, Trump introduced a sequence of agreements with Gulf states, significantly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, associated to exporting AI chips and creating AI infrastructure.
The US has allowed the UAE to import as much as 500,000 of Nvidia’s most superior AI chips yearly, beginning this yr. The nation additionally signed an settlement to construct the most important synthetic intelligence campus exterior the US. In return, the UAE has pledged a $1.4 trillion funding in the USA over the subsequent decade, encompassing sectors like vitality, AI, and manufacturing.
this was an especially good factor for you all to do and i am sorry naive individuals are providing you with grief. https://t.co/iTkQj9c9QW
– Sam Altman (@sama) May 16, 2025
In Saudi Arabia, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund-backed AI startup, Humain, has secured a deal to obtain 18,000 Blackwell AI chips for a 500-megawatt information heart. Leaders from AMD, Amazon and different firms introduced the settlement. In return, the dominion has dedicated to investing $600 billion in US firms, specializing in sectors like AI, protection, and infrastructure.
The offers distinction with the earlier US administration’s remedy of Persian Gulf nations when it got here to AI {hardware} exports. In 2023, Biden’s authorities introduced restrictions on the sale of high-end AI chips from Nvidia and AMD to some nations within the Center East, together with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, measures geared toward stopping delicate applied sciences from reaching nations with shut ties to China – the UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s largest buying and selling accomplice.
The Biden administration additionally launched the AI Diffusion Rule in January 2025, putting the UAE and Saudi Arabia in a class that imposed stricter export limitations on AI chips. The Trump administration not too long ago rescinded the rule earlier than it was as a consequence of take impact in Might 2025.
The brand new offers have drawn criticism from those that consider they might enable China entry to the superior AI chips which might be prohibited from being exported to the Asian nation. Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer said, “This deal may very properly be harmful, as a result of we now have no readability on how the Saudis and Emiratis will forestall the CCP from getting their palms on these chips.”
Former PayPal chief working officer David Sacks, who acts because the White Home synthetic intelligence and crypto czar, mentioned he was “genuinely perplexed” by criticism of the offers. Replying to the submit on X, Altman wrote, “this was an especially good factor for you all to do and i am sorry naive individuals are providing you with grief.”
It is little shock to see Altman voicing his assist. OpenAI is collaborating with Emirati AI agency G42 and funding entity MGX to develop one of many world’s largest AI information facilities in Abu Dhabi. The corporate can also be enjoying a serious function within the AI revolution happening within the Gulf area.
