In a groundbreaking development, the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a significant agreement allowing the UAE to construct the largest artificial intelligence campus outside of the United States. The joint investment agreement was announced jointly by the US Commerce Department and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It could include the Abu Dhabi state-backed firm G42, which is currently pursuing an ambitious smart city project that would span 10 square miles in Abu Dhabi.
This multi-municipality campus is designed to serve AI data centers and provide them with a staggering 5-gigawatt power capacity. Yet the deal gives the UAE increased access to cutting-edge AI chips. Beginning in 2025, they would be able to bring in as many as 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced chips annually. This announcement highlights the deepening partnership between the two countries on AI technology.
Howard Lutnick, the US Commerce Secretary, remarked on the significance of the deal, stating that “American companies will operate the data centers and offer American-managed cloud services throughout the region.” This engagement demonstrates a strong technical partnership and a commitment to upholding the highest possible standards of technology management.
The deal comes at a time when the US is undeniably the global leader in AI innovation. At the same time, China has emerged as a powerful competitor in just one year’s time. This backdrop renders the new agreement all the more remarkable. In addition to improving technological capabilities, it addresses security concerns regarding technology transfer.
Below, Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, discusses what the agreement means. He focused on how it would determine the future direction of the UAE’s technology strategy. He emphasized that this change provides the UAE an important opportunity to deepen their technology partnership with the US. Best of both worlds Simultaneously, it serves to reassure US-Chinese trade relations. Soliman elaborated, stating, “It doesn’t mean abandoning China but it does mean recalibrating tech strategy to align with US standards and protocols where it matters most: compute, cloud, and chip supply chains.”
The deal includes major commitments from the UAE. They will soften their national security regulations and make them more compatible with our own. Later in the day, the White House released a fact sheet reiterating that this alignment involves robust protections to prevent diversion of US-origin technology.
G42 and other state-linked investment vehicles have already made splashy investments into major US firms, such as OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI. The new campus will amplify these relationships exponentially. Microsoft has reportedly pledged $1.5 billion to G42. This investment highlights the increasingly close relationship between American technology firms and their Emirati partners.
Worries have been raised about how this deal could allow China access to cutting edge technologies. As critics point out, the UAE is very much looking to up its AI game. They argue that we need to guard against having sensitive technologies reach adversarial hands and that we must do so with extreme care.
“The agreement also contains historic commitments by the UAE to further align their national security regulations with the United States, including strong protections to prevent the diversion of US-origin technology.” – The White House