Global Opportunity or National Security Risk?

Dear Members,

This week, former President Donald Trump announced a series of multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) deals with Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These agreements involve major U.S. tech players like Nvidia, AMD, Amazon, Qualcomm, and OpenAI building large-scale AI infrastructure in the region.

Key highlights of the deals include:
🔹 Nvidia will ship 18,000 advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia for a 500-megawatt data center by a startup named “Humain.”
🔹 AMD signed a $10 billion deal with Humain.
🔹 Amazon Web Services (AWS) is partnering with Saudi Arabia to build a $5B “AI zone” with infrastructure, training, and government AI agents.
🔹 The UAE and U.S. signed a framework that includes a 1GW AI data center, expanding to 5GW, to meet regional computational demand.

However, these developments raise serious national security concerns in Washington:

✅ The Gulf states maintain strong economic and military ties with China.
✅ Some fear China could use these partnerships as backdoor access to U.S. chips and infrastructure.
✅ The Biden-era “AI diffusion rule,” which restricted chip exports to countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has been scrapped – and no replacement policy is yet in place.

The Trump administration’s position is that America must lead in AI globally while ensuring sensitive technologies don’t fall into adversarial hands. But critics argue that these deals are happening too fast, without clear safeguards.

Why it matters:
The Gulf countries want to be the “third pole” in the global AI race (after the U.S. and China) — using their sovereign wealth funds to attract talent, hardware, and influence. They see AI as essential to surviving a post-oil global economy.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers worry that America is repeating past mistakes — like allowing industries such as semiconductors and solar to move offshore — and may lose its edge in AI.

The Big Question:
Are these Gulf investments a strategic win for American tech leadership? Or are they risky moves that could empower China?

We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Best regards,

Mahfuz