The US Government has approved the sale of NVIDIA's cutting-edge AI chips to a UAE AI-focused firm, G42, signaling ease in trade policy for "friendly" nations.
Biden Administration Eases Trade Policy For Partnering Nations, Expanding The US Tech Influence Over The World
It looks like the Biden administration is now opening up when it comes to exporting NVIDIA's AI chips to the world. While the US is still reluctant to take such a step with hostile nations, countries in the Middle East, especially UAE, have shown massive interest in expanding their AI computing capabilities, which is why the US has now given Team Green the "green" signal to sell its products to the nation. Semafor now reports that NVIDIA is planning to sell its Hopper H100 AI GPUs to the UAE firm G42, as both parties aim to expand their influence over the markets.
It won't be wrong to say that the Middle East is turning into the next "China" when it comes to the influence and growth of regional AI markets, and amid all the growth, UAE's G42 is standing out. The firm is rapidly expanding its data center facilities in the nation, with hardware being exclusively supplied by Western partners to prevent "technology transfer" to the likes of China. Apart from this, G42 has avoided the use of Chinese components and has removed existing ones as well, not only to show commitment but also to avoid the possibility of a Chinese backdoor.
G42 is also expanding its global influence since the firm is said to have received a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft for infrastructure and model training. The company has also cooperated with AI chip maker Cerebras to build data centers in the UAE. G42 plans to build some of the world's largest data centers in the nation, allowing the influence of US equipment to expand in growing regions and potentially compete with China, which has a massive technological presence in the UAE as well.
The UAE isn't the only country that has acquired NVIDIA's AI products since it was recently disclosed that the Qatari telecoms group Ooredoo has purchased thousands of NVIDIA's AI GPUs for their GPU-as-a-Service scheme, allowing clients access to cutting-edge AI ecosystem for large-scale developments and generative AI integrations. Apart from this, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman paid a visit to the Middle East a few months ago as well in order to attract investments for his ambitions of "AI ventures," hence reiterating the fact that the region holds immense importance for the world.
