The Commerce Department authorized the sale of up to 70,000 cutting-edge AI chips to two Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates-based businesses, giving both Middle Eastern countries a significant victory as they strive to close the gap in the global AI race. Due to security concerns, officials had previously rejected similar proposals. However, they changed their minds after President Trump spent months talking with leaders of both nations about chip access, starting with his visit in May and continuing this week with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
U.S. approves deal to ship AI chips to the Middle East
By promising significant U.S. investments and making agreements with his family’s companies in sectors like real estate and cryptocurrency, both governments courted Trump. The new approvals allow U.S. companies to sell up to 35,000 of Nvidia’s GB300 servers—or their equivalents—to Humain, an AI venture supported by the Saudi government, and G42, a state-run AI company in Abu Dhabi. According to government representatives, Advanced Micro Devices, a rival of Nvidia, already has a multibillion-dollar contract to collaborate with Humain.
To stop China or the tech giant Huawei from profiting from the chips, the Commerce Department imposed cybersecurity regulations and safeguards. Compliance will be observed by the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is in charge of export regulations. A spokesman for the Commerce Department stated, “These approvals will promote continued American AI dominance and global technological leadership.”
The GB300 system uses Nvidia’s B300 chips from the Blackwell series, which rank among the most potent AI processors on the market. Although both nations have approved a sizable number of chips, industry leaders point out that this number is still small when compared to deployments in the United States. More than 200,000 Nvidia chips are already in Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis, and American tech companies intend to ship several hundred thousand more to their own data centers in the Middle East. Musk announced on Wednesday that xAI, Nvidia, and Humain would work together to build a data center that would need 500 megawatts of power—enough to power several hundred thousand homes for a year.
Featured Image Credit: Erdem Horat; Pexels: Thank you!
