The US has authorised the export of Nvidia's powerful AI chips to UAE artificial intelligence company G42 and Saudi tech start-up Humain, it said on Wednesday.
Both companies can purchase the equivalent of up to 35,000 of Nvidia's Blackwell chips (GB300s), the Commerce Department said. G42 and Humain must meet rigorous security and reporting requirements, it added.
The approval is seen as a significant moment for the UAE and Saudi Arabia as part of their broader diversification efforts.
“The White House’s decision to authorise US chip exports to the UAE marks another milestone in the trusted and enduring partnership between our two nations,” said Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Minister of State and the country's long-standing ambassador to the US.
“The authorisation follows sustained engagement between both governments and reflects the confidence that underpins our collaboration in advanced technology and national security.”
UAE ambitions receive major boost
The announcement falls under bilateral deals the US has made with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In March, the UAE pledged to spend $1.4 trillion in the US as part of a broader technology investment framework. In May, the UAE announced plans to launch a 5 gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus during President Donald Trump's visit to the country.
The move marks a "pivotal transition from planning to deployment" on AI between the UAE and the US, G42 said.
It will accelerate the development of projects such as Stargate UAE, the 1GW AI compute cluster being built by G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Cisco, Nvidia and SoftBank Group, the company said. The project is part of the larger campus. When completed, the campus and AI data centre are expected to be among the largest computing infrastructure projects in the world.
The move also supports the expansion of technology collaborations with US hyperscalers and chipmakers, including Microsoft, AMD, Qualcomm and Cerebras, G42 said.
"What we build in the UAE, we will continue to match in the US, maintaining symmetry and trust at every layer," said Peng Xiao, chief executive of G42.
The export licence is seen as a landmark moment for the UAE's growing AI ambitions as the country seeks to become a major global centre for the technology.
Technology experts say the chips from California-based Nvidia are critical for building the computing capacity needed for AI infrastructure, which in turn can increase the speed of training AI large language models.
In recent years, debate has grown over technology export policy, with some pushing for the US to make sure that chips created by American companies are not used by countries like China.
The UAE, a long-time US ally, has sought to reassure White House officials that it has security processes in place to prevent US chip technology from being co-opted or stolen.
The country’s affinity for research into tech and AI has resulted in the establishment of start-ups, partnerships and investments from industry leaders including Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI.
In 2019, the UAE announced the establishment of a university dedicated to the tech, the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
Two years earlier, the Emirates was among the first countries in the world to appoint an AI minister, Omar Al Olama, who is now Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.
Chips approval tops Humain's AI deals
The approval of Nvidia chips capped a major day for Humain, the tech start-up backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The company, a significant part of the kingdom's own ambitions to become a global AI exporter, announced a series of AI deals earlier on Wednesday during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to Washington.
Among those agreements was a plan to purchase 600,000 Nvidia AI chips to use across new data centres in Saudi Arabia and the US. Humain said it marked its first major AI infrastructure in the US.
Humain also announced separate agreements with US-based companies including a joint venture to deliver up to 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure by 2030 with AMD and Cisco. Adobe and Qualcomm also struck a deal with the Saudi tech company to create content in Arab using Humain's large language model Allam.
The US also signed a strategic AI partnership with Saudi Arabia that will include the supply of advanced semiconductors.
The deals followed an increased investment pledge announced by Prince Mohammed on Tuesday from $600 billion to $1 trillion.
