A consortium of US tech firms revealed partnerships in the Middle East as Donald Trump secured a $600 million commitment from Saudi Arabia toward an American AI company during his Gulf tour.
One of the most notable agreements was made by Nvidia, which sells a vast number of AI chips in Saudi Arabia. The first batch of the new “Blackwell” chips is set to be supplied to Humain, a Saudi AI startup funded by Western investments. Additionally, Cisco announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a contract with G42, a UAE-based AI firm, to support the development of the region’s AI sector.
Trump is expected to visit the UAE on Thursday. According to a report by The New York Times on Monday, his administration is negotiating a deal that would allow the UAE to acquire a significant quantity of Nvidia AI chips.
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These transactions flow in both directions. The White House announced that Saudi company Datavolt plans to invest $20 billion in US AI data centers and energy infrastructure. Furthermore, Alphabet’s Google, Datavolt, Oracle, Salesforce, Advanced Micro Devices, and Uber are set to invest a total of $80 billion in transformative technologies across both nations, although specific details remain undisclosed.
Cisco has also committed to exploring collaboration opportunities with G42 in the UAE, and has formed an agreement to jointly develop US AI and cybersecurity technologies utilizing AI data center capabilities.
As Saudi Arabia strives to lessen its economic reliance on oil, it is positioning itself as an AI hub and an influential center for AI initiatives beyond the US. Recently, on Monday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans to establish a human initiative focused on the development and management of AI technologies in Saudi Arabia. These companies aim to utilize NVIDIA’s platform to help cement Saudi Arabia’s status as a global leader in AI, GPU cloud computing, and digital transformation.
With the most advanced semiconductors being crucial for next-gen AI, Trump found himself in an advantageous negotiating position during his Middle Eastern visit. The AI chip dealings with Saudi Arabia starkly contrast the stringent restrictions placed on US commodity trading with China. Specifically, Nvidia is barred from supplying its latest models to Chinese firms, although it continues to compete against American companies in the AI sector, notably Deepseek.
Source: www.theguardian.com
