The fallout from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s likely ouster will reach the Gulf, where ambitious AI buildouts depend on advanced US chips. Fear over China’s access to American technology through intermediaries has forced local AI champions like PIF-owned HUMAIN and Abu Dhabi-backed G42 to fight hard for chip access. Huang’s affair with a woman US intelligence officials allege is a Chinese spy will no doubt sharpen that scrutiny. Lawmakers are already pushing for new curbs on chip diversion, a move that could threaten the speed of development here.
A friend-of-the-Gulf in Washington is also under pressure as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who greenlit the supply of tens of thousands of advanced GPUs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, faces allegations that he stalled action against the Singapore firm tied up in the Huang scandal; Commerce denies the account. Still, the region’s relationship with the world’s largest chipmaker has long been one of customer and vendor: Great fortunes are tied to Nvidia, but the loss of the company’s leader shouldn’t undermine its ability to produce silicon. The question for the Gulf is, as it’s always been, about access.
Dubai real estate tycoon Hussain Sajwani — who is building data centers around the world and expects his early investments in Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX will yield a “few billion dollars of profit”…
