The UAE has been handed prized AI chip access after helping America attack Iran.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington has expanded Emirati access to artificial intelligence chips after the Gulf state carried out airstrikes against Iran, intercepted hundreds of missiles and helped keep shipping moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration said on 10 July 2026 that the UAE would be treated like European countries, South Korea and India when buying technology, military kit or energy infrastructure with possible military uses. It had previously sat in a group with China and Yemen, which was not exactly the club Abu Dhabi wanted.
The shift allows the country’s main AI outfit, G42, to freely buy chips from firms such as Nvidia for at least nine months. It removes licence hurdles for large US companies, including Microsoft and OpenAI, which have planned data centres in the country.
The deal is likely to get a grilling because UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan controls G42 and became a business partner of the Trump family last year. Sheikh Tahnoon is the UAE president’s brother. But we are sure there is no sign of corruption here.
Emirati officials, led by Sheikh Tahnoon, had pushed for chip access during the Biden administration, then went straight to the White House after the war in Iran began. US officials said the UAE’s role in the Abraham Accords and its decision to fight alongside America against Iran proved it was a dependable ally.
UAE ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba said the move “advances decades of deep and dependable UAE-U.S. cooperation.” The White House has denied conflicts of interest, which is exactly what it would say.
Four days before US president Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Sheikh Tahnoon and others agreed to invest $500 million for a 49 per cent stake in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency outfit started by the Trump family. The UAE promised to invest $1.4 trillion in the US.
China hawks are now grumbling that shipping advanced chips to the UAE could hurt America’s AI race. Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Sobolik said: “The UAE has been a great partner with Iran, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve demonstrated the capability to keep a data centre secure.”
US representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove said at a House committee hearing: “It smells like it could be an illegal pay-to-play scheme.”
Commerce Department official Jeffrey Kessler said he had not discussed UAE chips with Trump family members or World Liberty Financial executives and called the move “one of the most significant achievements of the administration”.
