UAE officials discuss ‘deepening collaboration’ during White House visit

Economic partnerships, energy investment and AI on the agenda

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and National Security Adviser, met Trump administration officials and business leaders in the US. Eissa Al Hammadi / UAE Presidential Court

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and National Security Adviser, met Trump administration officials and business leaders on Monday at the White House for discussions on artificial intelligence, economic co-operation and investment partnerships.

During the visit on Monday, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Yousef Al Otaiba, Minister of State and the UAE's ambassador to the US, also met US Vice President JD Vance.

They met with Mr Vance “to discuss deepening UAE-US collaboration on supporting energy investment and abundance, technological leadership, and unleashing unprecedented economic growth”, the UAE embassy in the US said in a post on X.

Mr Al Otaiba said that the UAE was looking to expand its significant investment in the US and grow its technology partnership with the country in AI, advanced technology, energy, infrastructure and life sciences.

“The US remains our key partner in these and other areas,” the post on X read. “We have ambitious plans to do even more in and with the US.”

Sheikh Tahnoon's visit to Washington comes a week after Dr Al Jaber said the UAE considers the US a significant business partner because of its access to energy and infrastructure.

Members of US President Donald Trump's administration said the meetings with the UAE officials also touched on regional challenges, as well as strengthening the “decades-long US-UAE security partnership”.

The US and UAE share strong trade ties. Bilateral trade totalled $34.4 billion last year, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

The UAE's continued push to be a leader in AI research was also a major focus of the meeting with US officials.

The UAE sees major opportunities to further invest with the US across the “energy-AI nexus” and other sectors, Dr Al Jaber, who is also managing director of Adnoc and executive chairman of XRG, said during a keynote speech at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston. XRG is an investment company focused on lower-carbon energy and chemicals.

Adnoc moved its US investments to XRG in February, including a minority stake in an ExxonMobil hydrogen plant in Baytown, Texas, and a stake in the NextDecade Rio Grande LNG export centre.

This comes as the UAE − the Arab world’s second-largest economy − has sought to become a leader in AI, as it continues its push to diversify its economy beyond oil.

Sheikh Tahnoon has in recent months met some of the world's top technology leaders, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla boss Elon Musk in September 2024. The same month, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence. He met Microsoft boss Satya Nadella in Seattle last summer.

Mr Trump has secured two major investments from the UAE since he won the presidential election last year, including a pledge of up to $20 billion from Damac Properties to build data centres in the US. And UAE-based technology firm MGX joined BlackRock, Microsoft and Global Infrastructure Partners as an initial equity funder in the Stargate project, a new AI joint venture in Texas. The companies made an initial investment of $100 billion, which will increase to $500 billion over the next four years to help develop AI infrastructure.

In a further sign of the countries' strong trade ties, President Sheikh Mohamed visited former president Joe Biden and other US officials last year to hold discussions on business, climate and space exploration.

The UAE has also been a recipient of significant US investment in the AI sector. That includes a strategic partnership between Microsoft and G42 announced in April last year. As part of the announcement, Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in the UAE AI and cloud company. They later announced two centres in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE has also made AI investments which have resulted in the establishment of start-ups, partnerships and investments from tech industry leaders.

In recent months, however, some technology analysts said that new policies introduced in the final days of the Biden administration somewhat blunted the UAE's AI efforts, along with other countries like Saudi Arabia and India, by placing the countries in a second chip tier which made it more difficult for them to obtain powerful computer chips needed for AI.

Companies like Nvidia and Microsoft have come out against the policy and asked the Trump administration to reverse course.

A source at Nvidia told The National the rules will make it harder for countries including the UAE to build capacity for non-frontier AI use cases. Frontier AI is a term used to describe highly capable AI models and technologies that could pose risks to public safety.

UAE investment in the US extends beyond AI, however. Masdar is also expanding its portfolio in the US. Meanwhile, Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), Gulftainer and DP World hold investments and projects in the US.

Mubadala has investments in US companies such as chip maker GlobalFoundries, healthcare technology company Zelis, broadband company Brightspeed and insurance broker Truist. In 2023, Fortress Investment Group and Mubadala Capital also signed agreements to acquire SoftBank Group’s majority stake in the US asset manager.