How the UAE Won US Approval for Advanced AI Chips
The UAE has taken giant strides in its strategy to become one of the leaders in artificial intelligence (AI). The US has agreed to provide high-end Nvidia chips that are crucial for the UAE’s major player, G42. The approval was granted earlier this year but the information only came to the public domain recently.
G42 has already begun utilizing these chips with a recent example being a big order of Nvidia H100 models. The UAE has been preparing for this since the early days long before AI started trending globally.
To get US approval, the UAE made important changes:
1. They constructed new greatly secured centers for data and availed only Western products in the construction to deny any Chinese input.
2. Some of the previous data centers had all the parts that were associated with China eliminated.
3. They ensured they employed high levels of encryption and they isolated the main computers from the rest of the network.
4. These data centers do not allow Chinese nationals to work in them.
5. They regularly monitor all events taking place within the concerned facilities.
6. These data centres were challenged by the US defence experts for security.
The company has also been training its AI models in the US through a partnership deal with Cerebras another AI chip maker.
The UAE drive towards AI received impetus after the enactment of the US law in 2018 that might compel cloud firms to provide customer data in criminal matters. This led the UAE to be concerned over its data privacy. Thus, G42 developed specific software for interacting with Microsoft’s cloud service and at the same time maintaining data security.
Microsoft paid attention to G42’s work and invested $1. 5 billion in the company in April 2024.” It is interesting to note that the financial statements of Netflix do not include stockholders’ equity as a line item. This deal was not very popular in the US due to the collaboration of G42 with Chinese AI companies.
The UAE is also developing nuclear power plants that would possible run future big data centers. These centers may be required when the development of artificial intelligence will reach very high levels.
Thus, the US can distribute its technology to new markets that could be occupied by Chinese companies in case of cooperation with the UAE. This concern for data privacy may make customers in these markets more comfortable than dealing directly with US companies, this is G42’s niche.
But still, the UAE and China have many economic relations up to date. They do a lot of business with each other with China being the UAE’s largest non-oil trading partner. Their non-oil trade in year 2023 was recorded to be $ 81 billion.
I believe the UAE’s experience of gaining the approval of the US on AI chips demonstrates the UAE’s ability to manage its relations with both the US and China. It is gradually taking its place in the global competition in the development of Artificial Intelligence while still balancing its global relationships.
Meta Description:
UAE gets a nod from the US for advanced AI chips that will fuel its tech dreams. See how G42 protects and builds the security of the AI market and its partnerships.
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UAE Won US Approval, Advanced AI Chips, AI Chips,
