Trump's Mid-East Visit Opens Floodgates for AI Deals

Saudi Arabia, UAE Set to Get Advanced Chips, as Biden-Era Limits Are Rescinded

- 

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is clearing a path for two key Persian Gulf allies to pursue their artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions — and some of the biggest US tech companies are seizing on that opening with plans to spend billions of dollars in the region.

Under agreements with the US expected to be unveiled in the coming days, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are poised to win wider access to advanced AI chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that are considered the gold standard for running AI models.

The deals are taking shape while US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East to forge deeper business ties that put US technology initiatives at center stage.

Even before any formal announcement of accords between the US and its partners, news began to emerge of American companies readying expanded projects in the region:

• Nvidia, the world's biggest semiconductor maker, will supply its most advanced AI-related chips to Saudi Arabia's Humain, a company created to push that country's AI infrastructure efforts. Humain will get "several hundred thousand" of Nvidia's most advanced processors over the next five years, starting with 18,000 of its cutting-edge GB300 Grace Blackwell products and its InfiniBand networking technology.

• AMD, Nvidia's nearest rival in AI accelerators, will provide chips and software for data centers "stretching from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States" in a US$10 billion (S$13 billion) project, Humain and AMD said.