• UAE to build largest AI campus outside the US after gaining Nvidia chip access.
• Deal lifts past China-linked limits, with US firms set to run data centres.

The United Arab Emirates is set to host the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the United States. The project is part of a broader deal between the two countries that was confirmed during Donald Trump’s recent visit to Abu Dhabi.

As reported by Reuters, the agreement gives the UAE expanded access to advanced AI chips from US companies—a type of deal that was harder to secure under the Biden administration due to national security concerns tied to China.

While no specific chips were named, sources familiar with the deal say the UAE could start importing up to 500,000 of Nvidia’s top-tier AI chips each year beginning in 2025. Nvidia did not comment on the report.

Trump, along with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, was seen discussing the agreement during a meeting at a palace in Abu Dhabi. The timing of the deal highlights Washington’s increased comfort with deepening tech ties with the Gulf state, under the condition that data centers involved are managed by US companies.

The 25.9 square kilometre AI campus will be located in Abu Dhabi and powered by up to 5 gigawatts of energy. According to analysts, that capacity could support millions of Nvidia’s high-end chips. The site will be built by G42, a state-backed AI company in the UAE, but operations will be handled by American firms.

“This is bigger than anything we’ve seen announced so far in AI infrastructure,” said Lennart Heim, an analyst at the Rand Corporation, posting on social media.

Alongside the AI campus, US companies are expected to have a broader role in the UAE’s growing tech ambitions. Qualcomm will open an AI-focused engineering hub, and Amazon Web Services will partner with local firms to improve cybersecurity and cloud adoption.

For the UAE, the deal helps advance its long-term AI strategy while maintaining its position between two major powers: the US and China. The country’s relationship with China, its top trading partner, had previously complicated access to American-made chips. Under Biden, restrictions were in place to prevent US chip tech from reaching Chinese firms through third parties.

But Trump officials now say those controls were never meant to limit trusted partners. David Sacks, Trump’s AI lead, said in Riyadh earlier this week that the previous export controls were not intended to target allies.

The deal includes several commitments. The UAE will match or exceed the scale of US data centres it operates within its own borders. It also agreed to update its national security rules in line with American standards. That includes taking steps to block technology from being diverted to other countries.

The shift suggests Washington is betting that close oversight and US management will help prevent sensitive technology from ending up in the wrong hands.

Analysts say the UAE’s move doesn’t mark a full break from China, but rather a shift in strategy.

“It doesn’t mean abandoning China but it does mean recalibrating tech strategy to align with U.S. standards and protocols where it matters most: compute, cloud, and chip supply chains,” said Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

AI has become a top priority for the UAE. Its sovereign wealth-backed firms G42 and MGX have invested heavily in American companies, including OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI. Last year, Microsoft also committed $1.5 billion to G42 as part of a separate deal. Those partnerships came with US security conditions.

G42 has reportedly started removing Chinese hardware from its systems and scaled back investments tied to China. But Chinese tech companies like Huawei and Alibaba Cloud still have a presence in the UAE, and enforcement of export restrictions remains a challenge. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that AI chips were being smuggled into China through countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and the UAE.

Still, the latest agreement signals a shift in how the US views the UAE’s role in global AI infrastructure. By handing more control to American firms and agreeing to tighter tech security rules, the UAE appears to have cleared a path for access to high-end AI chips and deeper collaboration with US companies.

As construction begins on the massive campus in Abu Dhabi, all eyes will be on whether this balancing act between national ambitions and global tech politics can hold. For now, the UAE seems to have secured a strong position—one that could reshape its role in the AI race.