US approves up to 70,000 advanced AI chips for G42, HUMAIN

US Commerce Department approves NVIDIA Blackwell export licences

#UAE #SaudiArabia #USA #AIchips - The US Department of Commerce has authorised export of advanced US AI chips to UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42 and Saudi Arabia’s national AI company HUMAIN, paving the way for deals worth billions of dollars with US firms. Each company will receive approvals to purchase the equivalent of up to 35,000 powerful NVIDIA Blackwell chips (GB300s). The approvals promote American AI dominance and global technological leadership consistent with US President Donald Trump’s July 2025 AI Action Plan, and follow landmark US-Saudi and US-UAE AI partnership agreements. The authorisations are conditioned on both companies meeting rigorous security and reporting requirements, with the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security engaging with the companies regarding compliance monitoring. The announcement during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Washington visit.

SO WHAT? - The export approvals represent a significant policy shift from Biden-era restrictions on high-end AI chip exports to the Arabian Gulf. The new export approvals enable G42 and HUMAIN to access cutting-edge Nvidia GB300, or Blackwell chipsets, which have been tightly restricted under US export control frameworks since the started to become available 12-13 months ago. The new export approval allows each company to buy up to 35,000 Blackwell chips each, validating both companies’ infrastructure buildout strategies whilst demonstrating that geopolitical partnerships can unlock access to controlled technologies. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the only two countries not classified as Tier 1 for US technology exports to receive the approvals for GB300s.

Here are some key points about the announcement:

• The US Department of Commerce has authorised export of advanced US AI chipsets to UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42 and Saudi Arabia’s national AI company HUMAIN, with both companies receiving approvals to purchase the equivalent of up to 35,000 NVIDIA Blackwell chips (GB300s).

• The approvals will promote continued American AI dominance and global technological leadership consistent with US President Donald Trump’s July 2025 AI Action Plan, following landmark bilateral AI partnership agreements between the United States and Saudi Arabia and between the United States and the UAE.

• The authorisations are conditioned on both companies meeting rigorous security and reporting requirements, with the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security engaging with the companies regarding these requirements and monitoring compliance on an ongoing basis.

• The announcement was made during the official visit of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, to Washington DC for meetings with US President Donald Trump.

• Beyond the G42 and HUMAIN approvals, the US Commerce Department will continue to support export of the American AI technology stack to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other allies and partners globally, signalling broader technology transfer policies for strategic partnerships.

• The approvals follow signing of a Strategic AI Partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia by His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

• The US-Saudi Strategic AI Partnership encompasses supply of advanced semiconductors, development of AI applications, building advanced AI infrastructure, developing national capabilities, and expanding high-value investments between the two countries to boost productivity, innovation, growth and prosperity.

• The partnership capitalises on Saudi Arabia’s competitive advantages in available land, energy resources and geographic location to build AI technology clusters serving local, regional and global demand for AI and cloud computing services, whilst leveraging the United States’ technology ecosystem as an engine for economic growth.

G42 REACTION - UAE AI company G42 welcomed the approval as marking a pivotal transition from planning to deployment within the UAE-US AI corridor, reflecting bilateral trust and shared commitment to secure, scalable AI infrastructure. According to the company, the milestone accelerates foundational projects including Stargate UAE, which forms part of the larger UAE-US AI Campus, a 5-gigawatt infrastructure hub designed to deliver compute capacity and low-latency inferencing for the wider region. The chip deployment will be governed by the Regulated Technology Environment, a technology and compliance framework pioneered by G42 and approved under US Department of Commerce and Bureau of Industry and Security guidelines. G42’s expanding AI infrastructure footprint now spans the UAE, France and multiple US locations including California, Minnesota, Texas and New York, with three systems ranked in the global TOP500 supercomputers.

HUMAIN REACTION - HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin posted on LinkedIn: “I am delighted and deeply thankful to share that we have received the full export control approvals for NVIDIA’s latest, state-of-the-art GPUs — enabling us to accelerate the next phase of our AI infrastructure build-out with the world’s most advanced compute.”

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Updates in progress

LINKS

• US statement on UAE and Saudi chip exports (US Dept. of Commerce)

• Joint USA-Saudi Arabia statement - 19-Nov-25 (US Dept. State)

Read more about US AI negotiations with Saudi Arabia and the UAE:

• US–Saudi Strategic AI Partnership signed (Middle East AI News)

• Tech leaders unite to build Stargate UAE AI hub (Middle East AI News)

• New US-UAE agreement sure to accelerate G42’s US plans (Middle East AI News)

• UAE-US to launch AI cluster with 5GW data centre (Middle East AI News)

• UAE, US on verge of 500,000 AI chip annual quota deal (Middle East AI News)

• AI chip breakthrough expected as Trump heads to GCC (Middle East AI News)

• UAE commits to $1.4 trillion in US investment (Middle East AI News)

• Microsoft chief urges Trump to scrap two-tier policy (Middle East AI News)