Trump's Gulf tour culminates in UAE with focus on AI partnerships

United States President Donald Trump arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday in the third and last stop of his Middle East tour, becoming the first serving US president to visit Abu Dhabi in 17 years.

After visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, Trump is hoping to secure billions of dollars in business deals with the oil-rich UAE, which seeks to become an artificial intelligence hub.

The US president was welcomed by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and later he is expected to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, an architectural landmark in Abu Dhabi.

Earlier in the day, Trump attended an event with business leaders in Qatar's capital, Doha, and visited Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the region.

During the two day-stay in the UAE, various deals are expected to be signed between the UAE and the US, with AI in particular one area to watch.

Officials from the two countries have been "actively engaged" in the lead-up to Trump's visit in hopes of advancing a broad artificial intelligence and technology partnership, local media The National newspaper reported.

This week, the US government axed a controversial ruling that, from Thursday (May 15), would have restricted access to cutting-edge AI chips, including Nvidia's Blackwell chip, to foreign buyers including the Gulf states. The move will pave the way for major deals between UAE and US companies.

The United States 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 UAE's early interest in AI is an advantage when it comes to striking sizeable deals with the US, said Mohammed Soliman, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and technology adviser at McLarty Associates.

"They were among the first in the world to name a minister of AI and their sovereign wealth fund put money into chips so many years ago," he said.

In 2019, the UAE was among the first countries to open a university dedicated to AI, the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

The US is the UAE's largest trading partner outside Asia and its sixth-largest globally, accounting for 4 percent of the UAE's total non-oil trade, which reached $32.8 billion in 2024, said Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE's minister of economy.

Former US president Joe Biden's administration had imposed strict oversight of exports of US AI chips to the Middle East and other regions.

But Trump has made improving ties with some Gulf countries a key goal of his administration. If all the proposed chip deals in the Gulf states, and the UAE in particular, come together, the region would become a third power center in global AI competition after the US and China, Reuters commented.

Trump's tour to Riyadh and Doha has earned a string of business agreements, including a deal for Qatar Airways to purchase up to 210 Boeing widebody jets, a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US and $142 billion in US arms sales to the kingdom.

The trip has also brought a flurry of diplomacy. Trump made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that the US will remove longstanding sanctions on Syria and subsequently met with Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

On Friday, Trump is scheduled to participate in a business event and visit the Abrahamic Family House on Saadiyat Island, a symbol of interfaith dialogue. He is scheduled to then depart for Washington later Friday.

cuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn