U.S. May Allow UAE to Import 500K NVIDIA AI Chips Annually

According to informed sources, the United States has reached a preliminary agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to allow the annual export of 500,000 of NVIDIA's most advanced AI chips starting in 2025. The initiative aims to accelerate the UAE's efforts in building data centers critical for AI model development. The agreement is expected to remain in effect until at least 2027, with the potential to extend through 2030.

As outlined in the draft agreement, 20% of the chips—approximately 100,000 units annually—would be allocated to G42, a prominent UAE-based technology company. The remaining chips would be designated for American tech giants such as Microsoft and Oracle, both of which are expanding their AI operations and considering establishing data centers in the UAE.

While the agreement is still under negotiation and subject to change, sources indicate growing opposition within the U.S. government. These discussions follow earlier policies under the Biden administration, which imposed strict controls on AI chip exports to prevent advanced processors from reaching China.

In a parallel development, former U.S. President Donald Trump visited the Gulf region this week and announced a $600 billion investment pledge from Saudi Arabia to the U.S., including major chip purchases from NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm.

According to export rules enacted under the previous Biden administration, the compute power of chips allocated to the UAE would be two to four times higher than previously permitted. However, the Trump administration has signaled its intention to roll back these restrictions.

Currently, the vast majority of global AI compute capacity is concentrated in the United States and China. Should these proposed chip deals with Gulf nations—especially the UAE—move forward, the region could emerge as a third major hub in the global AI race.

G42 is backed by key stakeholders including Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, the UAE ruling family, and U.S.-based private equity firm Silver Lake Capital. The company is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's National Security Advisor and brother to the UAE President.

The preliminary agreement also includes provisions aimed at bolstering AI infrastructure within the U.S. Specifically, for every data center G42 builds in the UAE, a corresponding facility must be established within the United States.

A joint independent task force is expected to be formed to define the criteria for “advanced AI chips” and to establish security protocols. The chips covered under this agreement refer to next-generation GPUs, likely including NVIDIA's Blackwell series and the upcoming Rubin series, both offering significant performance upgrades over the current Hopper architecture.