microsoft announced on Monday that it had secured an export license to ship. Nvidia Chips to the United Arab Emirates, a move that could accelerate the Gulf state’s lofty AI ambitions.
The tech giant was the first company to receive such a license from the Commerce Department under President Donald Trump’s administration, and said the approval granted in September was based on “the latest rigorous technology safeguards.”
The license will allow the company to ship the equivalent of 60,400 additional A100 chips, including Nvidia’s more advanced GB300 GPU, the darling of the tech world.
“The chips are powerful and the numbers are big, but more importantly, they will have a positive impact across the UAE,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “We use these GPUs to provide access to advanced AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open source providers, and Microsoft itself.”
Nvidia stock rose 1.97% in premarket trading at 7:41 a.m. ET.
Microsoft President Brad Smith told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi that there is a “very significant” relationship between the UAE and US governments that spans multiple administrations.
“We are very grateful to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and the efforts he has supported in making export licenses available to us,” Smith said. “This is also based on the relationship we had with Secretary (Marco) Rubio when he was in the Senate and in the Democratic Party. It takes two parties (to govern) and we keep that in mind.”
Microsoft also announced that it will expand its investment in the UAE, bringing its total investment to $15.2 billion by the end of this decade. This includes a $1.5 billion equity investment in AI company G42 and more than $5.5 billion in capital expenditures to expand Microsoft’s AI and cloud infrastructure projects in the region.
“We’re really investing in trust. I think what we’re seeing here in the UAE coming together around AI and technology is a combination of technology, talent and trust, but it’s really the future of the whole economy,” Smith said.
—CNBC’s Dan Murphy contributed to this report.
