Trump's Gulf gamble: Helping UAE and Saudi become AI powers
The enduring legacy of President Trump's trip to the Gulf may be the transformation of the Middle East into a global artificial intelligence powerhouse, despite massive risks to the U.S.
Why it matters: The Biden administration saw the Gulf as a backdoor for China to gain access to the computing power needed to advance AI. President Trump and the tech CEOs who joined him in the Middle East see a chance for multibillion-dollar deals.
Driving the news: In deal after deal announced over the week, Trump opened the door for the Gulf to obtain the world's most advanced AI chips.
In Saudi Arabia, Trump and tech leaders from AMD, Amazon and other companies announced AI-related partnerships worth billions of dollars with a new Saudi-state-backed AI infrastructure startup called Humain. Nvidia said it will ship 18,000 of its cutting-edge AI chips for a 500-megawatt data center being built by Humain.
In the UAE, Trump and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed said the two countries will partner to build the largest AI data center outside the U.S., in Abu Dhabi.
What they're saying: Trump's AI czar, David Sacks, called the deals a "game-changer in the global AI race" that will "help to cement American technology as the global standard — before our competitors can catch up."
"The alternative to this framework was to exclude critical geo-strategic, resource-rich friends and allies from our AI ecosystem. This was the Biden policy, and it was foolish in the extreme," Sacks added.
The White House says last week's announcement by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE are part of a "Trump Effect" bringing the U.S. "a surge of private and foreign investment."
The big picture: The UAE and Saudi Arabia have leaders desperate to make their kingdoms high-tech powers, and deep pockets and abundant energy needed to develop AI. Now, with Trump's help, they'll also have the chips.
Some experts working on AI heard Trump's pronouncements and envisioned the world's biggest AI data centers sprouting not in the U.S., but in the Gulf.
Perhaps more pressingly, current and former U.S. officials worry China's biggest AI players — or even its military — will be able to access advanced AI chips they can't legally import into China by deepening partnerships in Gulf states, where Beijing enjoys extensive economic and security ties.
The other side: A group of Democratic lawmakers argued on Friday that Trump announced the deals "to export very large volumes of advanced AI chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia without credible security assurances to prevent U.S. adversaries from accessing those chips."
"These deals pose a significant threat to U.S. national security and fundamentally undermine bipartisan efforts to ensure the United States remains the global leader in AI. Rather than putting America first, this deal puts the Gulf first," the statement adds.
The bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party introduced new legislation"to stop advanced U.S. AI chips from falling into the hands of adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party."
The flipside: The White House insists it can safeguard U.S. tech while pursuing these multibillion-dollar deals.
In announcing the U.S.-UAE partnership, the Department of Commerce — which will have to approve some of the deals — said the tech cooperation will meet "robust U.S. security standards and other efforts to responsibly deploy AI infrastructure, both in the UAE and globally."
The administration is also working on a policy to replace the Biden-era chip export caps it withdrew ahead of Trump's trip.
Between the lines: Some policymakers and firms like Nvidia and Microsoft have argued overly arduous restrictions risk ceding the field to China, undercutting U.S. AI preeminence rather than bolstering it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
13 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
US and China are holding trade talks in London after Trump-Xi phone call
LONDON (AP) — High-level delegations from the United States and China are meeting in London on Monday to try and shore up a fragile truce in a trade dispute that has roiled the global economy, A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng is due to meet U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at an undisclosed location in the city. The talks are due to last at least a day. They follow negotiations in Geneva last month that brought a temporary respite in the trade war. The two countries announced May 12 they had agreed to a 90-day suspension of most of the 100%-plus tariffs they had imposed on each other in an escalating trade war that had sparked fears of recession. Since then, the U.S. and China have exchanged angry words over advanced semiconductors that power artificial intelligence, 'rare earths' that are vital to carmakers and other industries, and visas for Chinese students at American universities. President Donald Trump spoke at length with Chinese leader Xi Jinping by phone last Thursday in an attempt to put relations back on track. Trump announced on social media the next day that trade talks would be held on Monday in London. 'We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody's interests, so we welcome these talks,' the British government said in a statement.
CNBC
18 minutes ago
- CNBC
China and U.S. trade officials to hold talks in London
U.S. President Donald Trump's top trade officials are meeting their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday for talks aimed at resolving an ongoing trade dispute between the world's two largest economies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are representing the U.S. China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing's lead trade negotiator, will be in the U.K. between June 8-13, and that a meeting of the "China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism" would take place. The talks come after Trump last week said that he had held a lengthy phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping as both look to avert a full-blown trade war. Diplomatic efforts by both sides have ramped up after weeks of heightened trade tension and uncertainty after Trump announced sweeping import tariffs on China and other trading partners in April. Beijing retaliated, and a tit-for-tat escalation in duties ensued before both sides agreed in Geneva in May to temporarily slash duties and facilitate talks. At the time, the U.S. tariff on Chinese imports was cut from 145% to 30% , while China's levies on U.S. imports were lowered from 125% to 10%. China and the U.S. have since repeatedly accused each other of violating the Geneva agreement, with Washington saying Beijing was slow to approve the export of additional critical minerals to the U.S., while China criticized the U.S. imposing new restrictions on Chinese student visas and additional export restrictions on chips. U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Sunday said that the London talks would focus on moving forward with the Geneva agreement, noting the two sides' strategic interests in each other's markets.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Endless Flip-Flops Reveal His Recklessness
THERE'S NO ESCAPING the pattern in this run of recent headlines: 'Trump reverses plan to close more than 30 mine safety offices' 'Here are the 22 times he's changed his mind on tariffs' 'Trump reverses USDA office closures' 'Reversing on layoffs, National Weather Service adding staff' Plus, this whole set: 'Trump turns sharply on Musk'; 'Trump threatens to cut Musk's government contracts'; 'Trump, White House aides signal a possible détente with Musk'; 'Trump tells CNN he's 'not even thinking about' Musk and won't speak to him 'for a while'; 'Trump wants to get rid of the Tesla he bought to show support for Elon Musk.' That was all in less than a week, and telescoped to just 48 hours for the Trump-Musk blowup-détente-never-mind cycle. This is the bris you never wanted to attend, the circumcision you would never be able to unsee. And don't blame me for that metaphor, blame John Oliver. In late April, the Last Week Tonight host worked himself into a hilarious (and entirely warranted) frenzy over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s mass destruction of the Department of Health and Human Services. Asked about various program cuts on CBS, RFK Jr.'s answered with variations on 'I didn't know that, that's something that we'll look at.' After the fact. Because weighing programs and people on the merits beforehand 'takes too long and you lose political momentum,' the nation's top public health official said. Oliver's take: 'The health secretary should not be learning what he just did like some guy at a bachelor party being told what happened the night before. 'Do you not remember, bro? You spoke French well, then you pissed on a grave, fucked a bike rack, and cut $750,000 of research money for kid diabetes! You went wild!'' A photo of a mohel about to circumcise a baby boy then shows up onscreen. 'The rules for restructuring HHS should be the same as the ones for a bris!' Oliver almost shouts, his arms pumping, his voice rising, his eyes practically popping out of his head. 'It is crucially important to know exactly what you are cutting! Speed is just not the most important thing!' Or, as any seamstress or carpenter would tell you, measure twice, cut once. Join now EVEN BEFORE MUSK BRANDISHED a chainsaw, moved fast and broke much of the government, no one paying even an iota of attention would have expected Trump to be a model (mohel?) of careful consistency. Still, the speed and significance of the reversals has been shocking, and they appear to be standard operating procedure. In other words, we can expect them to continue until Trump exits the White House, whenever that is. One of the first and worst moments came when the Department of Energy discovered it had fired hundreds at the agency that oversees the nuclear weapons stockpile. Oops. And then had trouble finding them to hire them back. Oops again. Cancel foreign student visas? Require in-person Social Security visits? Fire a thousand National Park Service workers? Close more than thirty mine safety offices? Offload seven thousand Internal Revenue Service workers, hobbling its ability to collect taxes? Never mind times five. Court orders played a role in some of these reversals, but many others arose from delusional thinking (about phone fraud running rampant at Social Security, though there was hardly any) or magical thinking (as in, who needs nuclear stockpile safety overseers, or rangers at national parks that fuel local economies, or the people who know how to make sure taxes owed are taxes paid). The breaking point for me was an NPR story (yes, the NPR that's currently on Trump's chopping block) about the National Weather Service. Who knew we needed to know the weather? Not the DOGE crew. Who knew America has a hurricane season? Possibly not the nation's disaster aid chief. Who assumed AI would save the day, not realizing that AI can't function without the data produced by the federal government and its actual human employees? Apparently not Musk's tech bros. Who knew that Americans might want or need weather information outside of business hours? And really, who could have predicted that the NWS would now be hiring to fill in gaps left when five hundred people were fired? Or that many of the applicants will probably be fired probationary employees reapplying for their old jobs? That's what a union official told NPR. I've gotten this far without mentioning TACO, the Trump Always Chickens Out acronym that Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong coined to describe investment strategy amid Trump's constant tariff flip-flops. Trump hates the phrase, but if the flip-flop fits. . . And it does. Very well. Share TO LONGTIME POLITICAL OBSERVERS, by which I mean those of us so old we remember pre-MAGA times, it seems strange that the constant flip-flops have not ruined, scarred, or even dented Trump. Nothing has, and nothing probably will, as we've seen all too often. In this case, maybe it's because everyone already knows he's so deeply flawed, or because his decisions are so terrible that flipping in a different direction is all to the good. Especially if you're a savvy financial player who buys low every time a Trump-made disaster strikes. Because, TACO. My context here is the 2004 John Kerry presidential campaign, which I covered as a reporter on his bus and plane. Maybe it was a simpler time, or maybe Republicans were simply ruthless in driving home a message, but one unfortunate turn of phrase turned Kerry—a combat veteran—into a 'flip-flopper' who didn't support the troops. It was truly a doozy of a sentence, the classic 'I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.' 'I had one of those inarticulate moments,' Kerry said. He tried to explain. He wanted the expenditure funded at least in part by rolling back some of George W. Bush's tax cuts. But the phrase conveyed weakness and dithering, and Team Bush made sure it stuck. They even sold Kerry flip-flops at the Republican convention that year. The National Museum of American History owns a pair as part of its collection: It's a safe bet that those anti-Kerry flip-flop shoes will survive the coming cultural culling as Trump tries to remake the Smithsonian museums in the image of MAGA and himself. It's also a safe bet that the museum won't be adding Trump flip-flops in future years. It would be too exhausting to create souvenir flip-flops for every Trump flip-flop—and you'd need an entire museum to house them all. Share this article with a friend or family member, or post it to social media: Share
