Microsoft to take a position over $15 billion in UAE, secures US export licenses for Nvidia chips

The UAE has been spending billions of {dollars} to change into a worldwide synthetic intelligence hub, leveraging its shut relations with Washington to safe entry to U.S. expertise, together with a number of the world’s most superior chips.

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“The biggest share of (the investment), by far, both looking back and looking forward, is the expansion of AI data centres across the UAE,” Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith mentioned in an interview.

“From our perspective, it’s an investment that is critical to meet the demand here for the use of AI,” he mentioned on the sidelines of the ADIPEC vitality convention in Abu Dhabi.

NEW ROUND OF CHIP EXPORT APPROVALS FROM TRUMP WHITE HOUSE

G42’s previous ties to China, nonetheless, have attracted scrutiny in Washington, as a consequence of considerations over Beijing’s entry to superior semiconductors, together with by way of third events just like the UAE.

Asked whether or not the Abu Dhabi agency would acquire direct entry to essentially the most superior U.S. chips, he mentioned he thought that will be “part of G42’s future.”

Smith mentioned in a separate weblog put up on Microsoft’s web site on Monday that licences permitted final 12 months by the Biden administration allowed Microsoft to build up the equal of 21,500 Nvidia A100 GPUs within the UAE, primarily based on a mix of A100, H100, and H200 chips.

The Trump White House in September cleared for export an quantity equal to an extra 60,400 A100 chips, involving Nvidia’s extra superior GB300 GPUs, he mentioned, after the administration revised expertise safeguards.

INVESTING BILLIONS IN AI EXPANSION, CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE

The chips coated by the most recent approvals haven’t but been shipped, however that may occur “in a matter of months,” Smith instructed Reuters, including they are going to be utilized in its personal information centres within the UAE.

Microsoft could have invested $7.3 billion within the UAE between 2023 and the top of this 12 months. An additional $7.9 billion is earmarked to be spent between subsequent 12 months and the top of 2029, together with for the continued and deliberate growth of AI and cloud infrastructure, he mentioned in his weblog put up.

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