Trump administration considers a large chip sale to Emirati AI company G42

The Trump government is considering a deal that could send hundreds of thousands of artificial intelligence chips to G42 by the US, an Emirati AI company that the US government has investigated in the past on its ties with China, said three people who are familiar with the discussions.

The negotiations, which are underway, emphasize a major shift in the US Tech policy prior to President Trump’s visit to the Persian Gulf States this week. The conversations have also created tension within the Trump administration between technical and business leaders who want to close a deal for the journey of Mr Trump and national security officers who are concerned that the technology can be abused by the Emiratis.

The Trump Government has embraced the cutting of direct deals for AI chips With civil servants from the East, because it seems to be strengthening the American ties in the region, the people who spoke about the condition of anonymity said because the negotiations are underway. The approach marks a break of the Biden administration, which had rejected similar AI chip sales because of the fear that they could give autocratic governments with strong ties with China a lead in the United States in the development of the most advanced AI models in the coming years.

In the conversations with G42 and officials of the United Arab Emirates, David Sacks, the White House AI CZAR, worked on an agreement that would give the Emirati company access to chips with limited supervision. Some chips would go to a partnership that G42 has with the American company OpenAI, while others would be sent directly to G42, one of the people said, adding that a deal is not yet final.

The Trump administration is expected to announce a deal this week with officials in Saudi Aarabia, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement. The deal would give the Saudi government and its New AI company, HumainAccess to tens of thousands of semiconductors and technological support from Nvidia and its AI chip rival, advanced micro devices.

The United States began to require a license for the purchase of AI chips during the Biden administration because of their value to help governments to develop military and surveillance technologies.

The changes in the Trump administration have the potential to reform a weapon race among countries, and countries that would like to develop AI -large chip sale, would be a blessing for G42, making it possible to make the Emirati company one of the most powerful AI companies outside the United States. It would be a powerful catalyst for Nvidia’s companies, the world’s leading AI chip maker. And it would fulfill the multi -year effort of OpenAi to bring more computing power to the middle.

Alasdair Phillips-Robins, a fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former commercial officer of the Commerce Department, said that a sale with hundreds of thousands of advanced chips would run the risk of “controling AI’s future to countries that we should not trust.”

“There is a reason why these countries want these chips so badly, and it is not purely the financial return,” he said. “Ai becomes the backbone of soldiers.”

The White House and G42 did not respond to requests for comments. OpenAi refused to comment.

Mr. Sacks has been working in the middle for a few days on this and other deals. On Sunday he posted a photo of himself on social media with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security adviser of the Emirates, who is also chairman of G42, and said they had discussed the AI ​​plans and opportunities of their nations.

“The US must make itself the partner-of-choice for our friends and allies-people will fill others that gap,” Mr Sacks wrote on X, the social media platform.

Sheikh Tahnoon said in a post on social media that the discussions were part of strengthening the economic ties between the countries. He added that “cooperation in advanced technologies serves as a cornerstone for building a smart, sustainable digital future that meets the ambitions of future generations.”

G42 is at the forefront of an Emirati effort to build an artificial intelligence industry and reduce the dependence on oil income. The company is governed by Sheikh Tahnoon. It includes a technology investment fund of $ 10 billion, an Arabic language AI -Modela tech talent platforma health care company and a Genome Sequencing Program.

The company has been screaming for access to American chips for several years, but the negotiations with the Biden administration were delayed by concern about his ties with China. In previous years, American spy agencies issued warnings About G42’s work with Chinese companies, including the telecom company Huawei, and warned that G42 could be a leadership for overhanging advanced American technology to China. G42 has refused any connections with the Chinese government or army.

In 2023, a conference committee wrote a letter in which the commerce department was encouraged To see if G42 must be brought under trade restrictions because It had partnerships with Chinese companies And employees who came from government -bound companies in China.

Before agreing to sell chips to G42 in 2024, The Biden administration has spent months Negotiating security protection and a partnership with Microsoft. According to that agreement, Microsoft managed the chips to train and develop AI models, and G42 had permission to sell Microsoft Services that use those chips.

But after he had cut that deal, G42 pressed American officials for more chips and wanted to be able to serve them directly. Sam Altman, the Chief Executive of OpenAi, too lobby the US government To approve more chip sales at the region.

Mr Altman had collaborated with Emirati officials to expand the global computing power because it had been a shortage in the United States. He wanted to increase the range of chips and data centers because he believed it would enable OpenAi to build more powerful AI systems.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAi and his partner, Microsoft, accuse them of infringing copyright with regard to news content with regard to AI systems. OpenAi and Microsoft have denied those claims.)

MGX, an investment company from Emirati, is an investor in OpenAi. Last year, It came to a group of investors That contributed $ 6.6 billion to the start-up.

A former BIDEN -Administration official said that G42 had asked about 200,000 AI chips for his partnership with Microsoft, as well as at least 500,000 chips by 2026 that would be exclusively owned by G42. Senior Biden Administration officials, even those who were open to cooperation with the Gulf States, saw those sales levels as a non -starter, the person said.

While Mr. Trump is traveling around the middle this week, he is expected to greet deals with both governments and companies. The administration is also expected to present deals and negotiations throughout the region by American technology companies, including AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google and OpenAi, according to six people who are familiar with the plans.

The Trump government has also announced that it is planning to withdraw a Biden administration rule that has covered the number of AI chips that could be sent to certain countries in favor of direct dealings with governments.

The Midden -East is probably the first beneficiary of this change. In the past two months, civil servants from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia have negotiated with the Trump government to conclude agreements that would offer them steady access to AI chips, deals that can be announced this week.