US President Donald Trump's adviser on artificial intelligence has said the decision to allow the UAE to purchase powerful semiconductors was a turning point in making the American technology a dominant standard.
David Sacks, who also serves as the White House cryptocurrency tsar, made the comments about the US and UAE's AI endeavours during the Hill & Valley Forum conference in Washington, which describes itself as a “private bipartisan community of lawmakers and innovators committed to harnessing the power of technology”.
“Claims were made that somehow a chip sold to the UAE was like selling it to China, that every chip sold to you, it would be diverted,” he told the packed room at the Andrew W Mellon auditorium, a few blocks away from the White House.
He called the concerns expressed by some as “bogus”, and said that current geopolitical events backed this up.
“I think if UAE's data centres were serving China, I don't think they would be getting bombed right now by Iran,” Mr Sacks said.
On Monday during an event previewing the Hill & Valley Forum, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs Jacob Helberg spoke of the Trump administration deepening its US technology partnership with the UAE.
He also said that later this week, an Emirati delegation would meet high-ranking US officials to discuss advancing the AI Acceleration Partnership signed by the countries last year.
“In light of current events, the work of that group is even more meaningful,” Mr Helberg said in response to a question from The National. “We are going to reaffirm how much we value our bilateral relationship with the UAE and the courage that they've demonstrated throughout this incredibly trying time.”
The UAE has been the target of thousands of Iranian drone and missile strikes since the was the with US and Israel started on February 28.
UAE ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba said last week that deals, partnerships and investments in the US remained as strong as ever.
“The UAE's $1.4 trillion investment and economic framework with the US, announced last year, will stay on track, with plans to accelerate deployment and funding,” Mr Al Otaiba wrote in a letter to the US-UAE Business Council. Several deals relating to AI, energy, advanced manufacturing and critical infrastructure are in the works, he added.
For the last decade, the UAE has made a significant push to be a global leader in AI.
In 2019, the country announced the establishment of a university dedicated to the technology, the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
Two years earlier, the Emirates was among the first countries in the world to appoint an AI minister, Omar Al Olama, who is now Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.
Methodical efforts to prioritise AI in the UAE culminated in a major announcement during Mr Trump's visit to the country in 2025, when plans for a 5GW UAE-US AI Campus were announced.
The UAE, along with various US-based technology companies such as Microsoft and Nvidia, have pushed for the US to loosen chip restrictions for friendly countries like the Emirates.
Those efforts have largely been successful, with security agreements playing a key role in assuring that US-designed semiconductors would not be used by nefarious entities and governments.
More broadly, concerns about semiconductor smuggling taking place against the backdrop of the race between the US and China for AI dominance.
Last week, the US Justice Department indicted Wally Liaw, a co-founder of Super Micro Computers, and two others amid allegations that they tried to divert US-made AI chips to China.
“The defendants’ scheme became more brazen over time and resulted in massive quantities of servers with controlled US artificial intelligence technology being sent to China,” the department said.
In August, however, Michael Kratsios, who serves as director for the Trump administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy, said that such scenarios were far more difficult to successfully carry out than many imagine.
“These are like massive racks that are tonnes in weight and you're not going to put it on a forklift or back it into a truck, or something,” he said. The idea of chip smuggling “probably gets more airtime than it should”, he added.
