UAE officials are expected to discuss strengthening economic partnerships, investments and matters related to artificial intelligence and high-performance microchips during a visit to the White House on Monday.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and National Security Adviser, will start an official visit to the US on Monday. He is due to meet officials at the White House, with talks focused on advancing economic and technology ties between the two countries. Discussions will also cover regional challenges.
A source familiar with the UAE's economic partnerships and AI endeavours told The National that talks will also include investment reviews, describing the visit as “bilaterally focused”. Security is also expected to be touched upon.
AI is expected to be a major discussion point. Since January, the UAE, along other countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Israel and Singapore, have been contemplating how to deal with what has become known as the US AI Diffusion Rule. This is one of the final policy decisions handed down by President Joe Biden's administration, which placed limits on access to advanced chips and graphics processing units sought by countries for AI development.
The policy's main goal was to maintain the US lead on AI and prevent American technology from being used to improve research in countries such as China, which has an increasingly adversarial relationship with the US.
The “first tier” countries and territories of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the UK are exempt from the AI diffusion restrictions. For countries in the second tier, such as the UAE, it is possible to obtain high-performance chips, but there are limits.
The third tier of countries, which include China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela, will have the most difficulty obtaining GPUs (graphics processing units) and CPUs (central processing units) under the policy.
US-based chip designer Nvidia has voiced strong opposition to the policy, saying in January that the Biden administration was seeking “to undermine America’s leadership with a 200-plus-page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review”.
A source at Nvidia later told The National that the rules will make it harder for countries including the UAE to build capacity for non-frontier AI use cases. Frontier AI is a term used to describe highly capable AI models and technologies that could pose severe risks to public safety.
“This would capture a lot of GPUs that are included in gaming and other applications like health care and scientific research that don't have anything to do with frontier AI,” the source said.
In February, Microsoft came out swinging against the relatively new AI chip export policies, urging the Trump administration to eliminate them.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's vice chairman and president, wrote in a blog post that the AI Diffusion Rule caps the export of critical materials to “many fast-growing and strategically vital markets”.
“Left unchanged, the Biden rule will give China a strategic advantage in spreading over time its own AI technology, echoing its rapid ascent in 5G telecoms a decade ago,” Mr Smith wrote.
US President Donald Trump's administration has not yet indicated if it plans to keep the Biden AI chip policies.
Ultimately, that decision will probably come down to Mr Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was present during a recent meeting between Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and Mr Trump.
In recent years, the UAE − the Arab world’s second biggest economy − has sought to become a leader in AI, as it continues its push to diversify its economy beyond oil.
Some technology analysts believe that in many ways, AI – and the data that makes it possible – is quickly becoming the new oil.
The country has not been shy with AI investments. Those have resulted in the establishment of start-ups, partnerships and investments from tech industry leaders.
In 2019, well before AI was on the minds of many, the UAE was among the first in the world to open a university dedicated to AI: the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
In 2024, Microsoft announced a $1.5 billion investment in UAE AI and cloud company G42. That year, Microsoft opened its first Middle East AI for Good Lab in the UAE in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE has also created several large language models, including Jais. Jais Chat, a mobile app iteration of Jais, also made a major impact in the country, with its proficiency in both Arabic and English.
