[By Guancha Observer Network, Liu Chenghui]
On May 15th, carrying a "business manual," U.S. President Donald Trump arrived at his final stop on this Middle East tour - the UAE.
There, he received another "big package" worth $200 billion, covering multiple fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), aviation, energy, and manufacturing.
Among them, AI-related cooperation became the top priority, including planning and constructing a super AI data center with a capacity of 5 gigawatts in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to become the largest AI park outside the United States.
However, this deal has caused ripples within the U.S. government. Some senior officials attempted to urgently hit the brakes on the yet-to-be-disclosed projects: some hawkish officials on China complained that if there are not enough preventive measures, AI chips exported to Gulf countries will eventually flow into China, endangering U.S. national security and economic interests; others were concerned that it would allow Gulf countries to possess AI computing power rivaling the United States, which would be unhelpful for the U.S. to maintain its AI dominance.
On the other hand, supporters argued that expanding market share has strategic significance for the U.S. to maintain its AI dominance. They were worried that if these countries cannot obtain U.S. chips, they will turn to Chinese chips, especially since Chinese companies are constantly narrowing the technological gap.
On May 15th, Abu Dhabi, U.S. President Trump met with UAE President Mohammed. Visual China
Middle East-US to Build Largest AI Park Outside the US, Controlled by the US?
As Trump and the UAE finalized the $200 billion agreement, his Middle East trip officially concluded. Trump has announced investment commitments of $600 billion from Saudi Arabia and $24.3 billion from Qatar. Business agreements became the core outcome of his first foreign visit after returning to the White House.
The White House stated that the new deal strengthens the investment and trade relations between the two countries, based on a $1.4 trillion investment framework made by the UAE earlier this year for the next decade. This framework will help achieve prosperity for the U.S. in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, quantum computing, biotechnology, and manufacturing.
According to the White House's announcement, the U.S.-UAE agreement includes Etihad Airways ordering 28 Boeing aircraft worth $14.5 billion; a $60 billion oil and gas expansion project; the UAE investing $4 billion in building an aluminum smelter in the U.S.; Raytheon's participation in a gallium project; and the Holtec nuclear reactor project receiving a $10 billion commitment investment.
Artificial intelligence became the core issue of Trump's Middle East agreement. Relevant projects include Qualcomm assisting the UAE in building an AI data "global engineering center"; Amazon Web Services and other U.S. companies helping to strengthen public cloud services in the UAE.
US Department of Commerce AI park announcement
The most anticipated project was the 5-gigawatt super AI data center project.
The announcement released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on May 15th stated that the UAE and the U.S. agreed to establish an "U.S.-UAE Artificial Intelligence (AI) Acceleration Partnership" framework to further enhance cooperation around key technologies.
The UAE's AI company G42 will lead the joint effort with U.S. companies to invest in building AI infrastructure in the UAE and globally (including the U.S.). Among them, both parties will construct an AI park with a planned capacity of 5 gigawatts in Abu Dhabi, covering an area of 10 square miles (about 26 square kilometers). The first phase will build an AI data center with a capacity of 1 gigawatt.
Once completed, it is expected to become the largest AI park outside the United States, attracting large-scale U.S. data center operators and major enterprises to settle in, providing low-latency services to nearly half of the global population within a 3,200-kilometer radius of the UAE. The park will utilize nuclear, solar, and natural gas power generation to minimize carbon emissions and establish a science park to promote AI innovation and development.
Lenert Heim, an analyst at the U.S. think tank RAND Corporation, said on X platform: "This is larger than any other major AI infrastructure project we have seen so far." According to his estimate, its power capacity is sufficient to support the operation of 2.5 million Nvidia flagship B200 chips.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announcement particularly mentioned that the UAE committed to ensuring the safety of advanced AI technology through strict measures, including implementing customer identification (KYC) mechanisms to ensure that computing resources are only accessible to U.S. operators and authorized cloud service providers.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Lutnick said that this agreement opens up a historic AI cooperation between the U.S. and the UAE. He said that in the UAE, U.S. companies will dominate data center operations and export American-style cloud services to the entire region. The agreement contains strict technical non-proliferation clauses and exports the U.S. technology ecosystem to strategic partners, marking an important milestone in achieving Trump's vision of AI dominance.
Although neither party specified which company's chips the park will use, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang appeared at the scene during the exchange between U.S. and UAE leaders on the same day. Reuters previously revealed that the U.S. had reached an initial agreement with the UAE, allowing the UAE to import 500,000 of NVIDIA's most advanced AI chips annually starting this year, but neither NVIDIA nor the UAE responded to this.
When Trump visited the park planning model, Huang Renxun (far right) was also present. Social Media
Some High-Level Officials in the U.S. Government Want to Halt It, Not Just for China
In recent years, the UAE has been accelerating its transformation from oil and gas to data and "computing," aiming to become a global hub for next-generation technologies such as AI, life sciences, and space economy.
Reuters described on May 15th that this is a dream agreement for Trump and a significant victory for the UAE. Allowing the UAE to obtain the most advanced chips is a major policy shift for the U.S.
The U.S.-UAE cooperation in building an AI park bypassed previous concerns about China and reflected the confidence of the Trump administration - ensuring chip safety and control through measures such as requiring data centers to be managed by U.S. companies. During Biden's administration, such transactions were restricted due to U.S. concerns that China might acquire relevant technologies.
David Sachs, head of AI and cryptocurrency affairs at the White House, said on May 15th in Riyadh that the export controls imposed by the Biden administration were never intended to restrict friends, allies, and strategic partners.
Mohammad Soliman, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute, said that this shift allows the UAE to deepen its technological cooperation with the U.S. while retaining trade relations with China.
"This does not mean the UAE is abandoning China, but it does mean that the country is readjusting its technological strategy in the most critical areas such as computing, cloud services, and chip supply chains to align with U.S. standards and agreements."
Soliman said. However, despite this, sources said that due to security concerns raised by this agreement among various departments of the U.S. government, the terms of the agreement may change.
Bloomberg reported that the AI cooperation with the UAE has caused divisions within the U.S. government, with hawks increasingly worried that these projects could place U.S. national security and economic interests at risk.
Insiders said that discussions over the past few days were intense, with several high-ranking officials already studying strategies to delay the implementation of the Gulf AI agreement and braking on undisclosed projects. One concern point is that the U.S.-UAE bilateral agreement may include major projects from OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.
Inside the Longxin Science and Technology Park in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, staff members are recording chip data. Visual China
These insiders said that although the U.S.-UAE and U.S.-Saudi agreements contain principled clauses prohibiting Chinese companies from accessing these chips, due to many details still needing to be finalized, the agreement should not be disclosed before legal binding clauses are established.
In addition to security issues, insiders also said that some high-ranking officials in the Trump administration questioned the rationality of transferring chips overseas on a large scale, given that maintaining U.S. AI dominance is the core strategy of this administration. As Vice President Vance said in February this year at the Paris AI Summit: "The Trump administration will ensure that the strongest AI systems are built domestically in the U.S., using chips designed and manufactured in the U.S."
If all the announced and planned Middle Eastern agreements are fully implemented, the U.S. will still retain absolute advantages in global computing power, but Gulf countries will gain significant AI capabilities for the first time through top-tier U.S.-made hardware.
But supporters like Sachs believed that if the U.S. does not encourage global use of U.S.-made chips, countries with AI ambitions will ultimately turn to Chinese companies, especially as Chinese companies continue to make technological progress and narrow the gap with the U.S.
They believed that actively expanding market share under the protection of security clauses is strategically valuable for the U.S. and crucial for maintaining AI leadership.
"Preventing technology from flowing to concerned countries is an important policy goal for the U.S., but it is not difficult to achieve," Sachs said. "In fact, simply sending someone to count the server racks in the data center can ensure that the chips remain in their original positions."
Executives like Huang Renxun also expressed similar views. They warned that America's advantage in advanced chip manufacturing is shrinking, and if it prevents other countries from using U.S. technology to build data centers, it may hand over the market to China.
Bloomberg predicted that if the agreement continues to move forward, U.S. hardliners against China may exert pressure through regulatory procedures, such as requiring multi-departmental joint approval for all AI chip exports to Gulf countries. U.S. government officials are also drafting new global semiconductor export regulations (replacing the previous framework of the Biden administration), providing new excuses for incorporating restrictions on China.
On the 16th, The Financial Times cited multiple sources as reporting that the U.S. Department of Commerce had compiled a list of Chinese companies and plans to add several Chinese chip manufacturing companies to the export blacklist, but some U.S. government officials hope to delay this measure to avoid affecting efforts to reach long-term trade agreements with China.
Commerce spokesperson He Yongqian responded on the 15th, saying that the U.S. abused export control measures, imposing harsher restrictions on Chinese chip products under baseless accusations, seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, seriously threatening the stability of the global semiconductor supply chain, and severely undermining market rules and international trade and economic order. This move is detrimental to long-term mutually beneficial, sustainable cooperation and development between both sides. China urges the U.S. to immediately correct its mistaken actions and will take firm measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
This article is an exclusive piece by the Guancha Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7504918686097162790/
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