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The UAE leader met with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday to boost the Gulf nation’s artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation aimed at improving access to American-made technology.
The meeting took place during Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s first official visit to the United States in seven years, and underscored his determination to enlist the White House’s support in transforming the UAE into an AI leader.
As well as discussing technology and trade, Biden said the UAE would now have “major defense partner” status alongside India and would strengthen security ties through measures such as joint military training and exercises.
The UAE is one of America’s most important allies in the Middle East, but relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years. Negotiations on a formal security pact with the US have stalled, and Abu Dhabi was infuriated by a lukewarm US response to an attack on the UAE capital by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in 2022.
But AI is bringing new energy to the relationship: Oil-rich Abu Dhabi has made it a central part of its plan to wean itself off fossil fuel exports, and has made a strategic decision to work with U.S. companies creating cutting-edge technology.
“New developments like artificial intelligence and cloud computing will change the way we see the world,” Anwar Gargash, a foreign affairs adviser to Sheikh Mohammed, said in Dubai last week. “We cannot afford to miss out on this wave of technological innovation.”
“If you think that hydrocarbons are slowly but surely heading towards disappearance, you have to supplement your revenue stream with something else,” he added.
But last year, the United States added the Gulf state to a list of countries restricted from freely importing cutting-edge U.S.-made AI chips, citing concerns about technology leaks to China. This means companies now have to apply for licenses to export the chips, a process that has delayed some of the AI plans of UAE companies.
The two presidents directed officials to develop a memorandum of understanding on AI cooperation as the next step in formalizing the partnership, but also outlined several broad areas of cooperation, including bilateral investment and support for “efficient licensing.”
A person briefed on the UAE’s plans said the Gulf state wanted to draw out a “road map” ahead of the upcoming US elections “to ensure progress is made no matter which president takes office in January.”
The official added that authorities were seeking to change the UAE’s export designation to make the chips more accessible.
Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, which invested $1.5 billion in the UAE’s most important AI group, G42, in April, told the Financial Times last week that clarity on export controls was “emerging” but that it “has taken months to work out.”
Smith added that export applications by Microsoft and other tech companies have not yet been fully completed but are “very close.”
In a sign of the UAE’s efforts to deepen ties with American companies, G42 announced last week that it was collaborating with Nvidia, a US company that makes chips crucial to AI, on a weather forecasting initiative.
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American companies looking to fund big-ticket AI projects also welcome Abu Dhabi’s oil money.
MGX, a new Abu Dhabi investment firm focused on AI, said last week it was launching a $30 billion fund to invest in data centers and the energy that powers them, in collaboration with asset manager BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Microsoft.
Sheikh Thanoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and chairman of the G42, visited Washington in June and has been leading efforts to secure US support for the UAE’s AI ambitions.
The FT previously reported that OpenAI founders Sam Altman and Sheikh Thanoon were in talks to fund an ambitious chip-making project.
Gargash said Sheikh Tahnoon “understands technology really well,” suggesting that this could help him in his negotiations with government officials and executives in the UAE and the U.S. “When he sits down with someone like Altman, he really speaks his language,” Gargash said.
Sheikh Tahnoun attended the meeting between Biden and Sheikh Mohammed.
