Latest news with #AdvancedMicroDevicesInc.
Mint
3 days ago
- Business
- Mint
AMD's China Concerns Overshadow Upbeat Sales Forecast for AI
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the second-largest maker of artificial intelligence processors, warned that its return to the crucial China market remains a work in progress, overshadowing a generally upbeat forecast for its AI business. As part of its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, AMD declined to predict Chinese sales of its Instinct MI308, an AI processor that it designed for the Asian country. The Trump administration had barred shipments of such chips to China in April, though it reversed course last month, raising hopes that AMD and rival Nvidia Corp. could soon resume sales. China is the largest market for semiconductors, and the restrictions have threatened to erase billions of dollars in total revenue from both companies. 'We appreciate the focus the Trump administration is placing on ensuring that US technology remains central to global AI infrastructure and we expect to resume MI308 shipments as licenses are approved, subject to end customer demand and supply chain readiness,' Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su said on a conference call with analysts. 'As our licenses are still under review, we are not including any MI308 revenue in our third-quarter guidance.' Su was optimistic about the overall market for AI computing. 'Looking ahead, we see a clear path to scaling our AI business to tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue,' she said during the call. The company also is ramping up its new MI350 lineup, she said. AMD shares initially fell more than 5% in extended trading on the China concern, before paring the losses during the conference call. They had gained 44% in 2025 through the close, making AMD the best-performing stock in the semiconductor industry. Third-quarter sales will be about $8.7 billion, the company said, topping the average analyst estimate of $8.37 billion. AMD's second-quarter sales rose 32% to $7.7 billion, compared with a $7.43 billion average estimate. Profit was 48 cents a share, minus certain items. Analysts projected 49 cents. Data center sales gained 14% to $3.2 billion in the period. On average, analysts had predicted $3.25 billion. Personal computer-related sales climbed 67% to $2.5 billion. The average prediction was $2.56 billion. Three months ago, AMD said it was taking $800 million in writedowns related to the export restrictions and warned that the curbs would cost it $1.5 billion in revenue this year. Wall Street has been waiting for a revised outlook in light of the shifting policy. In the decade since Su took the top job at AMD, the company has become a key provider of technology across the computing industry. The ability to deliver competitive products — at a time when longtime nemesis Intel Corp. has stumbled — has brought a reversal of fortunes. AMD's market capitalization is now roughly $200 billion higher than Intel's. Still, neither company has matched the runaway success of Nvidia, whose dominance of AI accelerators has made it the world's most valuable business. AMD is the second-biggest provider of graphics chips, which form the basis for the AI accelerators that run in data centers. Its microprocessors, meanwhile, go head to head with Intel products in the markets for PCs and servers. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Nvidia is the first $4-trillion company. Here are three things to know
SAN FRANCISCO — Nvidia is already the world's most valuable company being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global artificial intelligence boom. This week, the Santa Clara-based chip maker got another windfall. The Jensen Huang-led technology giant on Monday received approval from the U.S. government to sell some of its AI chips in China, boosting Nvidia's stock price by 4% to $170.70 a share on Tuesday. Rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has received similar assurances from the government. Nvidia's valuation has risen dramatically over the last two years since generative artificial intelligence became a mainstream topic. Last week, the 32-year-old company became the first publicly traded firm to reach $4 trillion in market capitalization, beating tech titans including Microsoft and Apple. Though it's a largely symbolic moment, the milestone raised the stakes for competition in the AI space, which has attracted enormous amounts of capital from established tech players and start-up investors. 'Once you reach that level of market cap, everybody and their brother wants to be you,' said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with advisory services firm Enderle Group. 'So that means that there's going to be a huge focus on creating competitive technologies to Nvidia because it looks incredibly lucrative.' Nvidia has become a primary force in the growth of AI technology, as many applications are built with Nvidia's chips. Prior to the AI boom, Nvidia was mostly known for creating premium graphics cards that were attractive to gamers in rendering high-speed visuals. Most recently, the company is known for selling powerful chips that help chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and self-driving cars process information quickly enough to make the technology useful. Nvidia said in its 2025 annual report that it powers more than 75% of the supercomputers on the TOP500 list, which ranks the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world. Founded in 1993, Nvidia has ridden many technology waves, including the crypto frenzy. But lately, Nvidia has seen tremendous growth thanks to worldwide investor interest — and competition for dominance — in artificial intelligence. Companies are eager to explore how AI can make processes more efficient and figure out complex problems. But getting the computing power behind AI can be expensive if companies are building hardware on their own. That's where Nvidia comes in. Nvidia's sales increased 69% to $44.1 billion in its fiscal first quarter compared to a year ago. Net income was nearly $18.8 billion, up 26% from a year ago. In its fiscal year 2025, the company's revenue more than doubled to about $130.5 billion compared to a year earlier, and net income increased 145% to nearly $72.9 billion compared to fiscal year 2024. In the last 12 months, Nvidia's shares have increased more than 30%. Since five years ago, the stock has risen more than 16-fold. 'It is clear AI is going to change the world and people want to get on that train, and Nvidia is the easiest entry point,' wrote Berna Barshay, a partner at online investment platform Wall Street Beats, in an email. Over time, new winners and formidable rivals may emerge, Barshay said. 'But during this foundational period of infrastructure creation, Nvidia has certainly been king.' Other companies were slower to innovate in AI, including Apple and Intel, and underestimated how quickly AI technology would advance, analysts said. Huang, a former microprocessor designer, discussed the idea behind Nvidia inside a Denny's in San Jose with fellow entrepreneurs Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The company's name is partly based on the Latin word 'invidia' — which means envy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many businesses are certainly jealous of Nvidia's success now, but in the 1990s, the company almost went out of business when its first chip, NV1, failed, according to media reports. Huang has said in public comments, including commencement speeches, that adversity can help people become better leaders. Born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1963, the onetime Denny's dishwasher has become one of the industry's most recognizable names, on par with Apple chief Tim Cook and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Thousands of people watch Huang's keynote at Nvidia's developer conference, as his vision could provide a road map for companies eager to expand investments in AI. Some analysts regularly refer to him as the 'godfather of AI.' The biggest challenges facing Nvidia are trade wars and competition, analysts say. Tariffs in the semiconductor industry could hurt companies like Nvidia, which manufacture and sell countless chips abroad. The company said in its annual report that 53% of its revenue in its 2025 fiscal year came from outside the U.S. The company said that worldwide geopolitical tensions and conflicts in countries like China, Hong Kong, Israel, Korea and Taiwan, where the manufacturing of its product components and final assembly are concentrated, could disrupt its operations, product demand and profitability. Nvidia has worked with its production partners to increase U.S. manufacturing of its chips. Several years ago, the U.S. restricted Nvidia's sales of its chips in China due to concerns that its AI technology could be used to help the Chinese military. Huang has said that since the U.S. government could choose to apply restrictions, he didn't think policymakers needed to be concerned about that and warned that allowing Nvidia to lose market share in China would cede a major advantage to Chinese tech company Huawei, according to Bloomberg. While many analysts say Nvidia has a significant lead on competitors, it is possible over time they could catch up. OpenAI, which uses Nvidia products for ChatGPT, is developing its own chip design, according to Reuters. There's also the question of whether the power grid is robust enough to support the infrastructure needs of the fast-growing technology, which could slow down not just Nvidia but the larger AI ecosystem. Despite the challenges, Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at is bullish on Nvidia, saying it is possible that the company could reach $5 trillion in market cap during the next 18 months. 'The world's still catching up and the thing is, it's going to take years for them to catch up,' he said. 'As long as we're looking at the AI revolution as a multidecade transformation, it's going to be really hard to take Nvidia out of that position.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's AI deals in the Middle East have security experts sweating
Donald Trump brought a host of new national security issues with him when he returned from his trip to the Middle East. His plan to accept a $400 million jet as a gift from the Qatari government to use as his presidential plane has already been denounced by lawmakers — not just because it's ripe for corruption, but also because ensuring it isn't rigged with any kind of malicious devices would be such a massive undertaking as to make security officials' heads spin. Now, concerns are cropping up around the president's deals on artificial intelligence with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and their implications for American security. As Bloomberg reports: The Trump team has worked out agreements for parties in Saudi Arabia to acquire tens of thousands of semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., while shipments to the United Arab Emirates could top a million accelerators — mostly for projects involving or owned by US companies. Such chips are used to develop and train models that can mimic human intelligence, and they're the most coveted technology of the AI age. Bloomberg reports that although the Saudi and UAE agreements 'include high-level language barring Chinese firms from accessing those chips,' some officials in the Trump administration are trying to slow the completion of the deals out of concern that 'too many details are still unresolved and the deals shouldn't be announced without legally binding provisions.' Those officials are not alone. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the reported semiconductor deal, citing security concerns. And the Republican-launched House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party also raised concerns about Trump's massive sale of chips to the Middle East and his broader AI agreements in the region, like his plan to partner with the United Arab Emirates on building the world's largest data center outside the U.S., in Abu Dhabi. 'Reports of new U.S. chip deals with Gulf nations—without a new chip rule in place—present a vulnerability for the CCP to exploit,' began the committee's thread on X, before going on to mention the data center deal. Sam Winter-Levy, a fellow with the Carnegie Endowment focused on tech and national security, suggested to Time magazine that security concerns shouldn't be limited to China, since U.S. tech companies' rush to do business in the Middle East could give all sorts of countries more influence. 'You could end up in a position where some large proportion of U.S. computing power has been offshored to a bunch of states that can wield leverage over U.S. foreign policy to shape it in ways that may not align with US national interests,' he said. What stands out is his observation that these moves go against Trump's self-described 'America First' agenda. Per Time's report: 'This is offshoring data centers that could be built in the United States. This is offshoring chips that could be going to US tech companies,' he says. 'It's hard to reconcile this with an America First approach to industrial policy or economic policy in general.' The report explains how the Trump administration 'ripped up' the Biden administration's restrictions on the export of semiconductors to foreign nations like China and some in the Middle East. That move was designed to give the U.S. a competitive advantage in the AI race and to concentrate semiconductors domestically, but the Trump administration has argued the rules were 'overly complex' and 'would stymie American innovation,' and that lowering them aids Trump's trade wars by helping him secure concessions from international partners. However, the Trump administration's rush to secure business deals with these partners — apparently without consideration for the risks to U.S. national interests — has plenty of people sweating. Meanwhile, the Trump family's lucrative business dealings in the region certainly aren't alleviating concerns that these AI arrangements have not been made solely with Americans' interests in mind. This article was originally published on
Straits Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Trump's rush to cut AI deals in Saudi Arabia and UAE opens rift with China hawks
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump's flurry of artificial intelligence (AI) deals during his tour of the Middle East is opening a rift within his own administration, as China hawks grow increasingly concerned the projects are putting US national security and economic interests at risk. The Trump team has worked out agreements for parties in Saudi Arabia to acquire tens of thousands of semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., while shipments to the United Arab Emirates could top a million accelerators – mostly for projects involving or owned by US companies. Such chips are used to develop and train models that can mimic human intelligence, and they are the most coveted technology of the AI age. Some senior administration officials are seeking to slow down the deals over concerns the US has not imposed sufficient guardrails to prevent American chips shipped to the Gulf from ultimately benefiting China, which has deep ties in the region, according to people familiar with the matter. While the UAE and Saudi accords include high-level language barring Chinese firms from accessing those chips, these officials argue too many details are still unresolved, and the deals should not be announced without legally binding provisions, the people said. China hawks also have grown alarmed over what they see as a willingness by White House AI Adviser David Sacks, who is helping lead the talks, to entertain proposals from Gulf leaders that they view as clear national security risks. None of those proposals are included in the current bilateral accords in the Middle East. Beyond those security issues, some senior Trump officials question the wisdom of shipping such large quantities of chips to any location outside the US, given the administration's focus on maintaining American dominance in AI, said the people. As Vice-President J.D. Vance put it at a Paris AI summit in February, 'the Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the US with American-designed and manufactured chips'. If the announced and planned Middle East deals all come to fruition, the US would still hold the vast majority of the world's computing power – but Gulf countries would for the first time have significant capabilities powered by best-in-class US hardware. A representative for the White House did not provide official comment for this story, which is based on interviews with nearly a dozen people who spoke about internal administration discussions on condition of anonymity. Nvidia and a spokesperson for the UAE declined to comment, while Mr Sacks, AMD and the Saudi Arabian government did not respond to requests for comment. Advocates for the deals, including Mr Sacks, argue that if the US does not encourage the world to use American chips, countries with AI ambitions will eventually turn to alternatives from Chinese companies – which have made progress in closing the gap with Nvidia, the industry leader. 'We need our friends, like the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other strategic partners and allies, to want to build on our tech,' Mr Sacks said on May 13 while on stage with Saudi Arabia's minister of communications and information technology. The possibility of that tech winding up in China is 'not an issue with a friend like Saudi Arabia at all', he said. Not everyone in the Trump administration agrees. In escalating conversations over the past two days, several senior officials have discussed strategies for slowing the implementation of Gulf AI agreements – and pumping the brakes on projects that have yet to be unveiled, the people said. One concern is a bilateral accord between the US and UAE that could include a massive project by OpenAI, the industry pioneer behind ChatGPT. Mr Trump arrived in Abu Dhabi on May 15 after stops earlier this week in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Officials on the ground were still in active negotiations the morning of the president's visit, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that they expect the deals to move forward in the near term. If that happens, China hawks may press their concerns through the regulatory process in Washington. All AI chip shipments to the Gulf require US government approval through a licensing process involving several federal agencies. Administration officials are also in the middle of drafting global semiconductor export control rules after tossing out a framework introduced by then-president Joe Biden. That provides another opportunity to include specific China guardrails and other strategic priorities. Mr Sacks, along with other officials who support the Gulf projects, has made the case that aggressive proliferation with security provisions would be a strategic win for the US – and crucial for maintaining American leadership in AI. Part of Mr Sacks' argument – echoed by tech leaders including Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang – is that the US lead over China in advanced chipmaking is shrinking. If Washington prevents countries with AI ambitions from building data centres with American technology, the logic goes, the US risks ceding those markets to its main geopolitical rival. Companies may choose to buy chips from the likes of Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese tech giant at the centre of Washington's efforts to curtail Beijing's AI ambitions. On the other side of the debate, some officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations have argued that America's technological lead is quite large and enables Washington to write the rules of the road for as long as other countries still covet American chips. Policymakers can afford to be aggressive in negotiations, these officials argue, and should not allow countries to access best-in-class American hardware without concessions and ironclad security promises. Trump officials in this second camp think they may be losing the internal fight over Middle East chip shipments – especially after the UAE and Saudi Arabia offered a combined US$2.4 trillion (S$3.1 trillion) in US investments that helped pave the way for the recent AI deals. In particular, some senior administration officials have grown wary of negotiating positions adopted by Mr Sacks, who has been one of the central players on the ground as government officials and tech executives hammer out the accords. In one meeting with Emirati officials ahead of Mr Trump's trip, Mr Sacks expressed openness to the UAE housing a production facility from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the leading maker of chips for the likes of Nvidia and AMD, people familiar with the matter said. The UAE has long coveted such a plant and asked the US government for its support as part of the broader chip accord. The hawkish Trump officials view a possible TSMC plant in the UAE as dangerous, the people said. Supporting the UAE's ambitions to manufacture AI chips domestically would create unnecessary national security risks given the country's ties to Beijing, the officials argue, especially if political alliances change in the future. The current accord does not include a TSMC plant, though separate conversations about such a project remain ongoing. TSMC declined to comment. Another lingering concern with the UAE is G42, the leading Abu Dhabi-based AI firm with historic ties to Huawei. Although it agreed to divest from Huawei and other Chinese providers to pave the way for a US$1.5 billion partnership with Microsoft Corp. in 2024, some US officials remain wary of G42's commitment to American priorities. Now the Trump administration is considering an agreement that would allow G42 to buy the equivalent of more than a million Nvidia H100 accelerators, among the chipmaker's top offerings, Bloomberg has reported. Critics of that accord include the chairman of the House China Select Committee, which in 2024 released a video detailing the bipartisan panel's G42 concerns. The voiceover in that video comes from Mr Landon Heid, Mr Trump's nominee for a top position at the agency that writes chip export rules and decides whether to approve individual semiconductor sales. Details of the security requirements in the broader UAE accord will be sorted out in a working group composed of American and Emirati officials, according to the people familiar with the matter. Topics already in the agreement include provisions to prevent diversion of chips to China and bar Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing UAE facilities. Mr Sacks has been angling to steer efforts to write the fine print, the people said – something that several of his US counterparts oppose. At one point in negotiations with Saudi Arabia, Saudi officials suggested they may install US chips in facilities that contain Huawei hardware, the people said, adding that the hardware in question was not Huawei's AI chips. The US delegation shot down that suggestion in the meeting, but after the fact, Mr Sacks suggested that Mr Trump's team should at least evaluate the idea. While some officials understood Mr Sacks' reaction as a suggestion to consider national security concerns on a technical basis, others saw it as an immediate disregard for why US officials would hold those concerns in the first place. For officials who view Huawei as a red line in Washington's China policy, the exploration of that possibility was unacceptable. The idea is not part of the current accord, people familiar with the matter said. 'The policy objective of preventing diversion to countries of concern is an absolutely important objective of the United States, but it is not a difficult one to achieve,' Mr Sacks said during his Middle East appearance. 'The truth of the matter is that all one would have to do is send someone to a data centre and count the server racks to make sure the chips are still there.' 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Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Rush to Cut AI Deals in Saudi Arabia and UAE Opens Rift With China Hawks
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's flurry of artificial intelligence deals during his tour of the Middle East is opening a rift within his own administration as China hawks grow increasingly concerned the projects are putting US national security and economic interests at risk. As Coastline Erodes, One California City Considers 'Retreat Now' How a Highway Became San Francisco's Newest Park Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Warming Homes in the Nordics Maryland's Credit Rating Gets Downgraded as Governor Blames Trump NYC Commuters Brace for Chaos as NJ Transit Rail Strike Looms The Trump team has worked out agreements for parties in Saudi Arabia to acquire tens of thousands of semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., while shipments to the United Arab Emirates could top a million accelerators — mostly for projects involving or owned by US companies. Such chips are used to develop and train models that can mimic human intelligence, and they're the most coveted technology of the AI age. Some senior administration officials are seeking to slow down the deals over concerns the US hasn't imposed sufficient guardrails to prevent American chips shipped to the Gulf from ultimately benefiting China, which has deep ties in the region, according to people familiar with the matter. While the UAE and Saudi accords include high-level language barring Chinese firms from accessing those chips, these officials argue too many details are still unresolved and the deals shouldn't be announced without legally binding provisions, the people said. China hawks also have grown alarmed over what they see as a willingness by White House AI Adviser David Sacks, who's helping lead the talks, to entertain proposals from Gulf leaders that they view as clear national security risks. None of those proposals are included in the current bilateral accords in the Middle East. Beyond those security issues, some senior Trump officials question the wisdom of shipping such large quantities of chips to any location outside the US, given the administration's focus on maintaining American dominance in AI, said the people. As Vice President JD Vance put it at a Paris AI summit in February, 'the Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the US with American designed and manufactured chips.' If the announced and planned Middle East deals all come to fruition, the US would still hold the vast majority of the world's computing power — but Gulf countries would for the first time have significant capabilities powered by best-in-class US hardware. A representative for the White House didn't provide official comment for this story, which is based on interviews with nearly a dozen people who spoke about internal administration discussions on condition of anonymity. Nvidia and a spokesperson for the UAE declined to comment, while Sacks, AMD and the Saudi Arabian government didn't respond to requests for comment. Advocates for the deals, including Sacks, argue that if the US doesn't encourage the world to use American chips, countries with AI ambitions will eventually turn to alternatives from Chinese companies — which have made progress in closing the gap with Nvidia, the industry leader. 'We need our friends, like the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other strategic partners and allies, to want to build on our tech,' Sacks said Tuesday while on stage with Saudi Arabia's minister of communications and information technology. The possibility of that tech winding up in China is 'not an issue with a friend like Saudi Arabia at all,' he said. Not everyone in the Trump administration agrees. In escalating conversations over the past two days, several senior officials have discussed strategies for slowing the implementation of Gulf AI agreements — and pumping the brakes on projects that have yet to be unveiled, the people said. One concern is a bilateral accord between the US and UAE that could include a massive project by OpenAI, the industry pioneer behind ChatGPT. Trump arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday after stops earlier this week in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Officials on the ground were still in active negotiations the morning of the president's visit, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that they expect the deals to move forward in the near term. If that happens, China hawks may press their concerns through the regulatory process in Washington. All AI chip shipments to the Gulf require US government approval through a licensing process involving several federal agencies. Administration officials are also in the middle of drafting global semiconductor export control rules after tossing out a framework introduced by President Joe Biden. That provides another opportunity to include specific China guardrails and other strategic priorities. Sacks, along with other officials who support the Gulf projects, has made the case that aggressive proliferation with security provisions would be a strategic win for the US — and crucial for maintaining American leadership in AI. Part of Sacks' argument — echoed by tech leaders including Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang — is that the US lead over China in advanced chipmaking is shrinking. If Washington prevents countries with AI ambitions from building data centers with American technology, the logic goes, the US risks ceding those markets to its main geopolitical rival. Companies may choose to buy chips from the likes of Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese tech giant at the center of Washington's efforts to curtail Beijing's AI ambitions. On the other side of the debate, some officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations have argued that America's technological lead is quite large and enables Washington to write the rules of the road for as long as other countries still covet American chips. Policymakers can afford to be aggressive in negotiations, these officials argue, and shouldn't allow countries to access best-in-class American hardware without concessions and ironclad security promises. Trump officials in this second camp think they may be losing the internal fight over Middle East chip shipments — especially after the UAE and Saudi Arabia offered a combined $2.4 trillion in US investments that helped pave the way for the recent AI deals. In particular, some senior administration officials have grown wary of negotiating positions adopted by Sacks, who has been one of the central players on the ground as government officials and tech executives hammer out the accords. In one meeting with Emirati officials ahead of Trump's trip, Sacks expressed openness to the UAE housing a production facility from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the leading maker of chips for the likes of Nvidia and AMD, people familiar with the matter said. The UAE has long coveted such a plant and asked the US government for its support as part of the broader chip accord. The hawkish Trump officials view a possible TSMC plant in the UAE as dangerous, the people said. Supporting the UAE's ambitions to manufacture AI chips domestically would create unnecessary national security risks given the country's ties to Beijing, the officials argue, especially if political alliances change in the future. The current accord doesn't include a TSMC plant, though separate conversations about such a project remain ongoing. TSMC declined to comment. Another lingering concern with the UAE is G42, the leading Abu Dhabi-based AI firm with historic ties to Huawei. Although it agreed to divest from Huawei and other Chinese providers to pave the way for a $1.5 billion partnership with Microsoft Corp. last year, some US officials remain wary of G42's commitment to American priorities. Now the Trump administration is considering an agreement that would allow G42 to buy the equivalent of more than a million Nvidia H100 accelerators, among the chipmaker's top offerings, Bloomberg has reported. Critics of that accord include the chairman of the House China Select Committee, which last year released a video detailing the bipartisan panel's G42 concerns. The voiceover in that video comes from Landon Heid, Trump's nominee for a top position at the agency that writes chip export rules and decides whether to approve individual semiconductor sales. Details of the security requirements in the broader UAE accord will be sorted out in a working group composed of American and Emirati officials, according to the people familiar with the matter. Topics already in the agreement include provisions to prevent diversion of chips to China and bar Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing UAE facilities. Sacks has been angling to steer efforts to write the fine print, the people said — something that several of his US counterparts oppose. At one point in negotiations with Saudi Arabia, Saudi officials suggested they may install US chips in facilities that contain Huawei hardware, the people said, adding that the hardware in question was not Huawei's AI chips. The US delegation shot down that suggestion in the meeting, but after the fact, Sacks suggested that Trump's team should at least evaluate the idea. While some officials understood Sacks' reaction as a suggestion to consider national security concerns on a technical basis, others saw it as an immediate disregard for why US officials would hold those concerns in the first place. For officials who view Huawei as a red line in Washington's China policy, the exploration of that possibility was unacceptable. The idea is not part of the current accord, people familiar with the matter said. 'The policy objective of preventing diversion to countries of concern is an absolutely important objective of the United States but it is not a difficult one to achieve,' Sacks said during his Middle East appearance. 'The truth of the matter is that all one would have to do is send someone to a data center and count the server racks to make sure the chips are still there.' --With assistance from Riley Griffin and Nick Wadhams. Cartoon Network's Last Gasp DeepSeek's 'Tech Madman' Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race Why Obesity Drugs Are Getting Cheaper — and Also More Expensive As Nuclear Power Makes a Comeback, South Korea Emerges a Winner Trump Has Already Ruined Christmas ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
