OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has defended the multibillion-dollar AI partnerships between U.S. companies and Gulf nations brokered by former President Donald Trump, labeling critics of the deals as “naive.”
TechSpot reports that during his recent tour of the Middle East, Trump announced a series of agreements with Gulf states, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, related to exporting advanced AI chips and developing AI infrastructure in the region. The deals have drawn criticism from those who fear they could provide a backdoor for China to access restricted AI technologies, as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have close economic ties to the Asian nation.
Under the agreements, the U.S. has allowed the UAE to import up to 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips annually, starting this year. The UAE also signed an agreement to build the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the U.S.. In return, the UAE has pledged a $1.4 trillion investment in the United States over the next decade, encompassing sectors like energy, AI, and manufacturing.
Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund-backed AI startup, Humain, has secured a deal to receive 18,000 Blackwell AI chips for a 500-megawatt data center. Leaders from AMD, Amazon and other companies announced the agreement. In exchange, the kingdom has committed to investing $600 billion in US companies, focusing on sectors like AI, defense, and infrastructure.
The deals mark a significant shift from the previous US administration’s stance on AI hardware exports to Persian Gulf countries. In 2023, the Biden administration introduced restrictions on the sale of high-end AI chips from Nvidia and AMD to some Middle Eastern countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in an effort to prevent sensitive technologies from reaching nations with close ties to China.
Critics, such as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, have expressed concerns that the new deals could potentially be dangerous, as there is no clarity on how the Saudis and Emiratis will prevent China from accessing these advanced AI chips.
However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has come out in support of the agreements. Responding to a post by David Sacks, the White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar, who said he was “genuinely perplexed” by criticism of the deals, Altman wrote, “this was an extremely smart thing for you all to do and i’m sorry naive people are giving you grief.”
Altman’s support for the deals is unsurprising, given that OpenAI is collaborating with Emirati AI firm G42 and investment entity MGX to develop one of the world’s largest AI data centers in Abu Dhabi. The company is also playing a significant role in the AI revolution taking place in the Gulf region.
Read more at TechSpot here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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