The first shipments of Nvidia's highly sought-after CPUs and GPUs, critical for artificial intelligence infrastructure, have arrived in the UAE, the country's ambassador to the US said on Friday.
Yousef Al Otaiba reflected on the importance of the chip shipment in the context of the UAE's AI ambitions during a roundtable discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
"The UAE is all in on American tech, we are not hedging, we are not diversifying, we're doubling down on it," he said. "I'm happy to announce that that first batch of advanced chips have been delivered and more are on the way."
In recent years, the UAE has sought to purchase and use Nvidia's chips for its AI build-out. Stringent export controls aimed at bolstering and protecting the US lead in AI can make such purchases difficult.
Ultimately, citing its long-standing status as a US ally and lengthy list of continuing partnerships, the UAE gained permission from the Trump White House to buy and use the technology.
Security assurances from the UAE that the chips would not fall into the wrong hands and possibly be used by a nefarious entity were a vital aspect of the US ultimately allowing its ally to purchase the chips.
Mr Al Otaiba's comments were made during the multi-day AI+ Expo in Washington, organised by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP).
During the discussion on Friday, the Atlantic Council released what it described as a "first in a series" report looking at how various countries have pursued different AI strategies. The analysis, "A new playbook for AI leadership: The case of the United Arab Emirates", examines the UAE's affinity for AI over the last decade.
"The country has positioned itself as a global hub for AI investment and a regional gateway linking advanced economies with the Global South," a summary of the report reads. "The analysis finds that the UAE’s long-horizon national vision, institutional agility, and investment-led innovation model have enabled rapid progress, particularly in AI deployment, infrastructure build-out and ecosystem formation."
The report gave the UAE a score of 17.3 out of 25, giving the country the title of an "advanced AI power", just short of being classified as a "frontier AI power", the highest ranking on Atlantic Council's scale.
The think tank's analysis concludes that the UAE's AI strategy proves that "competitiveness is not limited to traditional technology powers", and that ultimately countries in many different circumstances "can shape their own trajectories and influence the future distribution of AI capabilities".
Karan Bhatia, Google's head of government affairs and public policy, said he was enthusiastic about the Atlantic Council's new study, and mentioned the UAE's leadership in the technology sector. "The UAE is the perfect country to do the first study on," he said.
The Atlantic Council's report comes a day after the UAE again took the top ranking bestowed by Microsoft, which analysed more than 100 countries on how they have adopted AI. The Emirates was followed by Singapore, Norway, Ireland and France.
For the last decade, the UAE has made a significant push to become 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 US President Donald Trump's visit to the country in 2025, when plans for a 5GW UAE-US AI Campus were announced.
The White House has since praised the UAE, as well as companies based there, for partnering so closely with the US. During congressional testimony in February, the US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, Jacob Helberg, spoke highly of the Abu Dhabi AI company G42.
"They agreed to build a common operating picture that could allow American policymakers to actually have total transparency and assurance that the clusters in the UAE used and owned by G42 are not being accessed improperly," Mr Helberg said.
“The UAE is an incredibly important partner," Mr Helberg added. "They are a major investor who has pledged to invest $1.4 trillion in the US.”
