Key points
- Agreement would allow UAE to import US chips
- UAE aims to become among top three global AI centres
- Trump to visit US troops in Middle East
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump is due to end his Gulf tour in UAE following a brief trip to Qatar.
The US has a preliminary agreement with the UAE to allow it to import 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips a year, starting this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The deal would boost the country’s construction of data centres vital to developing artificial intelligence models.
The first major trip of his second term had been scheduled to end Thursday but Trump, always ready with surprises, did not rule out continuing on to Turkiye if Russian President Vladimir Putin shows up for talks with Ukraine.
$600 billion in investment
He started the trip in Saudi Arabia which promised its own $600 billion in investment, including one of the largest-ever purchases of US weapons.
The Gulf leaders’ largesse has also stirred controversy, with Qatar offering Trump a luxury aeroplane ahead of his visit for presidential and then personal use, in what Trump’s Democratic rivals charged was blatant corruption.
Creating jobs at home
Trump, who also chose Saudi Arabia for the opening visit of his first term, has been unabashed about seeking Gulf money and hailed the effect on creating jobs at home.
In a speech in Riyadh, Trump attacked not only Democrats but also the traditional wing of his own Republican Party, which had championed US military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Complimenting the skyline of the Saudi desert capital, Trump said: “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders’, ‘neocons’ or ‘liberal non-profits’, like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad.”
Birth of modern Middle East
“Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves,” he said.
“In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built.”
Trump said Wednesday he was willing to travel to Turkiye if Putin accepts an offer by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet on ending the war.
Russia has given no indication that Putin will attend. Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would travel nonetheless to Istanbul for the potential talks.
