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The UAE leader met with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday to advance cooperation on artificial intelligence as the Gulf nation seeks easier access to US-made technology.
The meeting comes during Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s first official trip to the United States in seven years and underscores his determination to secure White House support in his efforts to transform the UAE into an AI leader.
In addition to discussing technology and trade, Biden said that United Arab Emirates Russia would now have the status of a “major defence partner” alongside India, to foster closer security ties through measures such as joint military training and exercises.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the United States’ most important allies in the Middle East, but their relationship has been strained at times in recent years. Negotiations for a formal security pact with Washington have stalled, and Abu Dhabi has been infuriated by what it has seen as a lukewarm U.S. response to the deal. attacks on the capital of the United Arab Emirates by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in 2022.
Again AI has brought new energy to the relationship. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi has put artificial intelligence at the heart of its plan to wean itself off fossil fuel exports and made a strategic decision to work with American companies producing cutting-edge technologies.
“Artificial intelligence and new changes in cloud computing and so on are going to change the way the world looks,” Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to Sheikh Mohammed, said in Dubai last week. “We cannot let this kind of wave of technological breakthroughs pass us by.”
“If we think that hydrocarbons are disappearing, slowly but surely, then we have to replace the source of income with something else,” he added.
Last year, however, the United States added the Gulf states to the list of countries that cannot freely import cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips made in the United States, due to concerns about technology leaks to China. That means companies must apply for licenses to export the chips, and the process has delayed the AI projects of some UAE companies.
The presidents asked AI leaders to develop a memorandum of understanding on AI cooperation as the next step in formalizing the partnership. They also outlined several key areas of collaboration, including support for bilateral investment and “effective licensing.”
A person briefed on the UAE’s plans said the Gulf state wanted to outline a “road map” before the upcoming US elections “so that progress is ensured… regardless of who takes office in January.”
The person added that officials were seeking to change the UAE’s export designation to make it easier to obtain chips.
Brad Smith, chairman of Microsoft, which invested $1.5 billion in the UAE’s largest AI group, G42, in April, told the Financial Times Last week, clarifications on export controls were “beginning to emerge”, but it had “taken several months to get there”.
Smith added that export applications from Microsoft and other tech companies were not yet fully finalized, but were “getting very close.”
In a sign of the UAE’s desire to deepen its ties with American companies, G42 announced last week that it was working with Nvidia, the American company that makes chips critical to AI, on a weather forecasting initiative.
American companies looking to fund expensive AI projects have also welcomed Abu Dhabi’s petrodollars.
MGX, a new Abu Dhabi investment vehicle dedicated to AI, announced last week that it was joining asset manager BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Microsoft to launch a $30 billion fund to invest in data centers and the energy needed to power them.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and chair of the G42, visited Washington in June and led the UAE’s efforts to secure US support for its AI ambitions.
Flight previously reported that OpenAI founder Sam Altman and Sheikh Tahnoon were in talks to fund an ambitious chip-making project.
Gargash said Sheikh Tahnoon has “a good understanding of technology,” suggesting that could help the UAE’s negotiations with U.S. officials and leaders. “When he sits down with someone like Altman or someone like that, he really speaks their language,” Gargash said.
Sheikh Tahnoon attended the meeting between Biden and Sheikh Mohamed.