With Trump, UAE Challenges China: Build A Super Big AI Campus In Abu Dhabi

JAKARTA The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States have signed an important agreement to build the largest artificial intelligence (AI) campus outside the United States. The agreement, which was finalized during US President Donald Trump's visit to Abu Dhabi, was a major breakthrough, considering that previously a similar agreement was hampered by Washington's concern that AI technology could be accessed by China.

The AI campus will be built in Abu Dhabi with an area of 25.9 square kilometers and a power capacity of up to 5 gigawatts is sufficient to support about 2.5 million Nvidia's most advanced B200 AI chips. The project will be worked on by G42, a UAE state-owned company, but the data center will be operated by US companies.

The move reflects the Trump administration's confidence in the UAE's ability to manage high technology safely, with scrutiny from US companies. The deal also includes the UAE's commitment to building or funding data centers in the US that are equivalent or larger than those in the UAE.

"This agreement also contains a historical commitment from the UAE to align their national security regulations with the United States, including strict protection so that US technology is not diverted," the White House said.

President Trump was seen chatting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during the visit. Although it was not specifically mentioned the type of Nvidia chip to be used, Reuters sources said the UAE could import up to 500,000 of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips per year starting in 2025.

This deal is a strategic victory for the UAE, which has been trying to balance relations with the US as an old ally and China as the biggest trading partner. In the era of President Biden, the UAE's close relationship with China had limited their access to US-made chips.

But now, with a new approach from the Trump administration, those obstacles are starting to be relaxed. "Biden's export control was never meant to include friends, allies, and strategic partners," said David Sacks, a top AI official in the Trump administration.

In addition to the construction of the AI campus, this collaboration also involves companies such as Qualcomm to establish AI-based engineering centers, and Amazon Web Services which will work closely with local partners in cybersecurity and cloud adoption.

Even so, challenges remain. Big Chinese companies such as Huawei and Alibaba Cloud are still operating in the UAE. In fact, cases of smuggling AI chips into China through third countries including the UAE were detected.

However, G42, under US pressure, has begun replacing Chinese-made hardware and releasing their investment in Chinese companies. They have also invested in US technology companies such as Elon Musk's OpenAI and xAI, while Microsoft also injected $1.5 billion into G42 last year.

"This does not mean leaving China, but adapting technology strategies to align with US standards and protocols, especially in the fields of computing, cloud, and chip supply chains," said Mohammed Soliman of the Middle East Institute.

The AI Abu Dhabi campus is expected to be the largest AI technology center outside the US and a symbol of major changes to the geopolitical dynamics of technology between Washington, Abu Dhabi, and Beijing.