What simply occurred? Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar AI partnerships between US corporations and Gulf nations have been criticized by those that worry it might open a backdoor for China to entry restricted chips. However OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would not suppose so, and has labeled these with such considerations as “naïve.”
Throughout his tour of the realm final week, Trump introduced a sequence of agreements with Gulf states, notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, associated to exporting AI chips and creating AI infrastructure.
The US has allowed the UAE to import as much as 500,000 of Nvidia’s most superior AI chips yearly, beginning this 12 months. The nation additionally signed an settlement to construct the most important synthetic intelligence campus outdoors the US. In return, the UAE has pledged a $1.4 trillion funding in america over the following decade, encompassing sectors like vitality, AI, and manufacturing.
this was a particularly good factor for you all to do and i am sorry naive persons are providing you with grief. https://t.co/iTkQj9c9QW
– Sam Altman (@sama) Could 16, 2025
In Saudi Arabia, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund-backed AI startup, Humain, has secured a deal to obtain 18,000 Blackwell AI chips for a 500-megawatt knowledge middle. Leaders from AMD, Amazon and different corporations introduced the settlement. In return, the dominion has dedicated to investing $600 billion in US corporations, specializing in sectors like AI, protection, and infrastructure.
The offers distinction with the earlier US administration’s remedy of Persian Gulf international locations when it got here to AI {hardware} exports. In 2023, Biden’s authorities launched restrictions on the sale of high-end AI chips from Nvidia and AMD to some international locations within the Center East, together with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, measures aimed toward stopping delicate applied sciences from reaching international locations with shut ties to China – the UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s largest buying and selling companion.
The Biden administration additionally launched the AI Diffusion Rule in January 2025, putting the UAE and Saudi Arabia in a class that imposed stricter export limitations on AI chips. The Trump administration not too long ago rescinded the rule earlier than it was as a result of take impact in Could 2025.
The brand new offers have drawn criticism from those that imagine they might permit China entry to the superior AI chips which might be prohibited from being exported to the Asian nation. Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer stated, “This deal might very effectively be harmful, as a result of we’ve no readability on how the Saudis and Emiratis will stop the CCP from getting their fingers on these chips.”
Former PayPal chief working officer David Sacks, who acts because the White Home synthetic intelligence and crypto czar, stated he was “genuinely perplexed” by criticism of the offers. Replying to the put up on X, Altman wrote, “this was a particularly good factor for you all to do and i am sorry naive persons are providing you with grief.”
It is little shock to see Altman voicing his help. OpenAI is collaborating with Emirati AI agency G42 and funding entity MGX to develop one of many world’s largest AI knowledge facilities in Abu Dhabi. The corporate can also be taking part in a significant function within the AI revolution going down within the Gulf area.
