Trump heads to UAE as it hopes to advance AI ambitions

Gram Slattery, Andrew Mills and Federico Maccioni

Wed, May 14, 2025, 9:05 PM 2 min read

By Gram Slattery, Andrew Mills and Federico Maccioni

DOHA (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump was owed to extremity a little travel to Qatar with a code to U.S. troops connected Thursday past alert to the United Arab Emirates, wherever leaders anticipation for U.S. assistance to marque the affluent Gulf federation a planetary person successful artificial intelligence.

The U.S. has a preliminary statement with the UAE to let it to import 500,000 of Nvidia's astir precocious AI chips a year, starting this year, Reuters reported connected Wednesday.

The woody would boost the country's operation of information centers captious to processing artificial quality models. But the statement has provoked nationalist information concerns among sectors of the U.S. government, and the presumption could change, sources said.

A drawstring of concern agreements has been inked during Trump's four-day plaything done the Gulf region, including a woody for Qatar Airways to acquisition up to 210 Boeing widebody jets, a $600 cardinal committedness from Saudi Arabia to put successful the U.S. and $142 cardinal successful U.S. arms income to the kingdom.

The travel has besides brought a flurry of diplomacy. Trump made a astonishment announcement connected Tuesday that the U.S. volition region longstanding sanctions connected Syria and subsequently met with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

On Thursday, Trump volition code U.S. troops astatine the Al Udeid Air Base, which is successful the godforsaken southwest of Doha and hosts the largest U.S. subject installation successful the Middle East. He past flies to Abu Dhabi to conscionable with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and different leaders.

AI is apt to beryllium a absorption for the last limb of Trump's trip.

Former President Joe Biden's medication had imposed strict oversight of exports of U.S. AI chips to the Middle East and different regions. Among the Biden administration's fears were that the prized semiconductors would beryllium diverted to China and buttress Beijing's subject strength.

Trump has made improving ties with immoderate Gulf countries a cardinal extremity of his administration. If each the projected spot deals successful Gulf states, and the UAE successful particular, travel together, the portion would go a 3rd powerfulness halfway successful planetary AI contention aft the United States and China.

Trump had dangled the anticipation of making a broadside travel to Turkey to articulation Russia-Ukraine talks earlier returning to Washington, but a U.S. authoritative said connected Wednesday that the president would not marque that stop.

(By Gram Slattery and Andrew Mills successful Doha and Federico Maccioni successful Abu Dhabi; Additional reporting by Yousef Saba, Karen Freifeld and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman)