The US has approved several billion dollars’ worth of Nvidia AI chip exports to American companies including Oracle Corporation for projects in the United Arab Emirates – the first major step in implementing a bilateral AI deal that could define Donald Trump’s AI statecraft strategy, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
The export licenses, issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Commerce Department, allow Nvidia to ship advanced AI chips to American firms operating data centre facilities in the Gulf state. Local Emirati companies, including G42, were not included in this initial wave of approvals.
The deal is tied to a landmark AI agreement signed in May that pairs US chip shipments with reciprocal Emirati investment. Under the accord, the UAE pledged $1.4 trillion of investment on US soil over the next decade, while the US signaled it would authorize the export of up to 500,000 advanced AI chips annually, with a fifth ultimately expected to go to G42.
At the heart of the arrangement is a 5-gigawatt hyperscale data centre being built in Abu Dhabi – with OpenAI as anchor tenant and participation from Oracle, Cisco Systems, SoftBank Group, and G42. The site is emerging as a central pillar of the Trump administration’s bid to anchor AI infrastructure in US-allied Gulf states and counter China’s growing technological footprint in the region.
The approval of these first licenses follows months of behind-the-scenes negotiations and growing impatience in Abu Dhabi, which has committed vast sums to AI infrastructure and wants to move fast. For Washington, the stakes are both economic and geopolitical. Gulf nations have become some of the most important markets for AI hardware, and the US is determined to ensure those deals stay in American hands — not Beijing’s.
“President Trump’s policy boxes China out of the Middle East whereas the previous administration’s policy forced these countries into China’s arms,” said White House AI czar David Sacks earlier this week.
The AI chip shipments also come against the backdrop of Huawei’s attempts to make inroads in the UAE with its own hardware — efforts Washington is eager to undercut. By channeling Nvidia’s most advanced chips through US-operated data centers, Trump officials hope to establish a security perimeter that satisfies hawks in Washington while giving Gulf states the compute power they’ve been demanding.
Additional licenses for local entities could follow depending on the UAE’s investment timeline. For now, the first tranche marks a significant milestone in what may become a blueprint for how the US exports its AI capabilities abroad – pairing compute with capital and geopolitical alignment.
