The Persian Gulf: A Third Pole of AI Between the US and China?
Last week, Donald Trump traveled to the Middle East and made headlines. The American president met with the new Syrian president Ahmed al Sharaa, after years of sanctions in Damascus. In a turn against Washington hawks, Trump also said he was open to negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. will have an equally important impact on future geopolitics.
Trump did not travel alone to the Middle East. Persian Gulf monarchs, Trump announced the breakdown of the artificial intelligence and chip policy that Joe Biden had imposed during his administration. The Democratic leader had severely limited the number of chips advanced by train AI that the United States could sell internationally. The argument was to prevent this key technology from becoming established outside the United States or even reaching China.
Ironically, the Trump of tariffs and Made in the USA has reached an agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to sell them hundreds of thousands of advanced Nvidia chips. Thanks to this measure, the Emirates plan to build the world's largest data center outside the United States. The Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42 is consolidating its position as one of the most influential in the world.
Trump's decision has generated controversy. Some critics have said that the United States is giving away its technological future to the Gulf monarchies, dubious, autocratic allies with ties to China. Others say that if the United States does not strengthen its presence in the region now, Abu Dhabi or Riyadh will end up buying chips from the Chinese company Huawei and will expand Beijing's influence. In American chip strategy, there has always been a tension between controlling the technology or gaining international influence.
In any case, the Persian Gulf has been consolidating itself for years as a relevant hub in the future of AI. The region, as Analyst Kevin Xu explained, has three key advantages: abundant capital, from sovereign wealth funds of monarchies, eager to invest; energy in large quantities, unlike the United States or the EU, where limitations are already beginning to be seen due to the high energy demand of data centers; and a privileged geographical position, at the meeting point between Europe, Asia and Africa, through which 80% of the world's electricity passes. data traffic between the three continents. Trump's decision—right or wrong—has only increased the power the Persian Gulf will have over the future of AI and global technological competition.
