Billions in AI investments and new export deals for US-made chips are shifting geopolitical power dynamics in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are positioning themselves as AI hubs—with backing from Silicon Valley.
Saudi Arabia has launched a new AI company, Humain, which is set to play a central role in the country’s national AI strategy. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chairs the company. According to the state news agency SPA, Humain plans to build its own data centers and develop Arabic-language models for use in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
The launch comes just ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh. At the same time, a US-Saudi investment forum is taking place, with Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg among the expected attendees. The forum is set to unveil multi-billion dollar agreements in AI, defense, and infrastructure.
PIF leads Saudi AI push
Humain is wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which controls about $940 billion in assets. In recent years, PIF has launched several AI initiatives, including Alat—which aims to invest $100 billion in AI hardware by 2030, also under the Crown Prince’s leadership.
According to the Financial Times, Humain is meant to bring more institutional clarity to Saudi AI efforts, which until now have been fragmented across numerous initiatives. The country’s long-term goal is to become a global center for artificial intelligence and reduce its dependence on oil.
Trump administration greenlights major US chip exports to Gulf states
At the same time, the US government is negotiating a massive shipment of AI chips to the UAE-based AI company G42. According to the New York Times, the deal would see hundreds of thousands of Nvidia and AMD chips exported—both for a partnership with OpenAI and directly to G42. The talks are being led by David Sacks, the White House’s AI envoy.
This move signals a reversal of the Biden administration’s more restrictive chip policy, which had sharply limited exports to countries with close ties to China. G42 has previously drawn scrutiny for its work with Chinese firms like Huawei. US intelligence agencies have warned that G42 could serve as a conduit for sensitive technology to China.
OpenAI and Microsoft as strategic partners
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has long pushed for more compute resources in the Middle East, hoping to expand the global infrastructure for AI models. The New York Times reports that Altman has actively lobbied for more chip export approvals to G42 and other regional partners.
Under the Biden administration, G42 was granted limited access to US chips—with the condition that Microsoft controlled the hardware. G42 could sell Microsoft services based on those chips, but could not operate the infrastructure itself. Now, G42 wants to become more independent and is demanding full access.
Geopolitics in the AI era
The planned deliveries to G42 and Humain could reshape the geopolitical landscape of AI technology. Alasdair Phillips-Robins of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned that the US might risk losing control over the future of AI to political systems that fundamentally could not be trusted.
Despite these concerns, the Trump administration is pursuing a new strategy: Instead of maintaining export restrictions, it is striking direct agreements with friendly governments. The first to benefit are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump recently rolled back a sweeping AI technology export control system introduced under Biden—which divided the world into three chip zones—and plans to replace it with a simpler framework.
The New York Times reports that the US government plans to announce further partnerships with regional players and US tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI during Trump’s trip.
