Trump heads to UAE as it hopes to advance AI ambitions

DOHA: U.S. President Donald Trump was due to end a brief trip to Qatar with a speech to U.S. troops on Thursday then fly to the United Arab Emirates, where leaders hope for U.S. help to make the wealthy Gulf nation a global leader in artificial intelligence.

The U.S. has a preliminary agreement with the UAE to allow it to import 500,000 of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips a year, starting this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The deal would boost the country's construction of data centers vital to developing artificial intelligence models. But the agreement has provoked national security concerns among sectors of the U.S. government, and the terms could change, sources said.

A string of business agreements has been inked during Trump's four-day swing through the Gulf region, including a deal for Qatar Airways to purchase up to 210 Boeing widebody jets, a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the U.S. and $142 billion in U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.

The trip has also brought a flurry of diplomacy. Trump made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. will remove longstanding sanctions on Syria and subsequently met with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

On Thursday, Trump will address U.S. troops at the Al Udeid Air Base, which is in the desert southwest of Doha and hosts the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East. He then flies to Abu Dhabi to meet with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other leaders.

AI is likely to be a focus for the final leg of Trump's trip.

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

Trump has made improving ties with some Gulf countries a key goal of his administration. If all the proposed chip deals in Gulf states, and the UAE in particular, come together, the region would become a third power center in global AI competition after the United States and China.

Trump had dangled the possibility of making a side trip to Turkey to join Russia-Ukraine talks before returning to Washington, but a U.S. official said on Wednesday that the president would not make that stop.