Key Takeaways
- The US Commerce Department approved the export of AI hardware equal to 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell GB300 chips for G42 in the UAE and Humain in Saudi Arabia.
- The authorization arrives during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s US visit and comes as ties between the two countries continue to deepen.
- Humain revealed plans to buy 600,000 Nvidia processors and is partnering with Elon Musk’s xAI on a 500 megawatt Saudi data center.
- AWS will establish a dedicated AI Zone in Riyadh, where it plans to deploy and manage 150,000 Nvidia GPUs to support advanced model training and inference.
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Washington granted formal approval on Wednesday for the export of high-end American artificial intelligence processors to two Gulf technology firms, signaling closer U.S.–Gulf collaboration as the region expands its next-generation data infrastructure.
According to Reuters, the U.S. Commerce Department authorized the export of hardware equivalent to 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell GB300 chips for G42 in Abu Dhabi and Humain in Saudi Arabia.
The announcement came as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in the United States for his first official visit since 2018, adding weight to the timing of the decision.
Furthermore, the department said the approvals are tied to oversight and compliance measures that both firms are expected to follow.
Officials in the Emirates welcomed the United States decision. The UAE ambassador in Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, described it as a new milestone in bilateral cooperation and a sign of confidence in the country’s technology programs, as G42, the Emirati firm cleared to receive the chips, advances plans to develop one of the world’s largest data center clusters with US technology.
Nvidia, AWS and xAI Join Humain in Expanding Saudi AI Infrastructure
Humain, backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and positioned as one of the kingdom’s flagship AI ventures, gained approval for 35,000 Blackwell chips while preparing for a major expansion of its compute capacity in partnership with Nvidia.
The AI giant said the deepened partnership with Nvidia will see the company deploy “up to 600,000 of NVIDIA’s latest AI infrastructure technologies over the next three years, including NVIDIA GB300 platforms,” anchoring both its domestic and international buildout plans.
The company added that it will use “NVIDIA Nemotron open models” to train its HUMAIN Chat platform and will integrate “NVIDIA Omniverse libraries” to support large-scale physical-AI and digital twin projects.
Humain also unveiled a separate agreement with Amazon Web Services, under which AWS will “deploy and manage up to 150,000 NVIDIA GPUs within a dedicated AI Zone in Riyadh,” a site designed for advanced AI training and inference operations.
The company is also working with Elon Musk’s xAI on major computing sites, with Musk announcing a 500 megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia that will run on Nvidia chips and serve as a core asset in xAI’s global footprint.
Humain CEO Tareq Amin said the broadened partnerships strengthen the company’s global position: “By expanding our compute capacity in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia with the latest NVIDIA AI infrastructure, HUMAIN, and our partners at Global AI, xAI, and AWS, secure an even stronger strategic foothold.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang added: “AI is essential infrastructure — like electricity, every industry will use it, and every country will build it. Saudi Arabia intends to be a leading global AI hub.”
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