DUBAI (Dispatches) – The UAE’s bid to buy hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips from Nvidia is being held up by U.S. officials concerned that China could gain access to advanced American technology, The Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. officials are weighing whether or not to sell chips directly to a company owned by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE’s powerful national security advisor.
Tech CEOs, diplomats, security officials and investors have all been waiting for clarity on whether the U.S. would begin exporting Nvidia AI chips to the UAE as part of a much-hyped deal that President Donald Trump announced during a visit to the Persian Gulf in May. 
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE have been approved to receive the chips by the Commerce Department. 
On Thursday, the WSJ reported that plans to export chips to the UAE have been delayed, as the U.S. weighs new terms for a deal. 
The original agreement envisioned the UAE purchasing up to 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips annually, starting in 2025. Of that amount, 400,000 would go to U.S. firms working on data centers and AI projects inside the oil-rich Persian Gulf state.
But a big slice - 100,000 chips - is supposed to go directly to G-42, the state-owned AI firm run by Sheikh Tahnoon, who is also the UAE’s AI czar. 
Tahnoon, who sports aviator sunglasses because of an eye condition, manages the UAE’s most ambitious tech investments and has personally overseen outreach to the U.S.
His lobbying has been framed as a bet by the Persian Gulf state on American technological prowess over China. He visited U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in March to lay the groundwork for the deals announced in May.
White House AI czar David Sacks, who spearheaded the deal, is seen as an advocate for pushing the sales through.