UAE’s G42 Guarantees to Keep US-Made AI Chips Safe from China

• G42's CEO Peng Xiao assured that his company and the whole country in general is a reliable AI partner for the US.
• President Joe Biden has been contemplating imposing more restrictions on the export of AI chips, fearing it may end up in the hands of China.
• Since G42 is already under suspicion, Xiao felt it was necessary to reassure US officials that it was capable of keeping US technology safe.

The UAE's premiere tech company G42 has reassured US officials that the company is a reliable AI chip partner and can be trusted with American technology.

This reassurance comes as President Joe Biden is contemplating imposing more restrictions on the sale of AI chips from Nvidia and AMD to various countries, including the Middle East. US officials are worried that if its technology somehow ends up in the hands of China, it will be used against them.

I cannot read the mind of the U.S. policymakers, but in many ways, I understand their position.' -Peng Xiao, CEO of G42

But he also added that time and again, they proved their transparency and commitment to keep US technology safe and secure. However, he didn't reveal how exactly they are ensuring the safety and what exact steps they are taking.

Regardless of this little bump in the road, Xiao is optimistic that the future holds many more collaboration opportunities with respect to technology sharing.

Why Is G42 a Concern For US Officials?

G42 has long been a concern for the US over its ties with China. Xiao himself is a Chinese businessman and was also the former CEO of Pegasus. The company is also well-connected with other Chinese firms.

There were also some rumors that G42 has ties with the Chinese military and intelligence. However, these rumors were denied by the company.

G42's Deal With Microsoft

Despite all the suspicions against G42, Microsoft signed a $1.5 billion deal with the company in April. Initially, there was a lot of resistance against the deal from US's side and it placed a few conditions on G42 which the latter obliged with.

• For instance, it had to remove all Chinese gear and equipment from its system and give up its stake in the Chinese company ByteDance.
• The company was also barred from using any tools for surveillance and will have to allow Microsoft to audit how its technology is used at any given moment.

After G42 agreed to these conditions, the US and UAE came together to release a joint statement, saying that their purpose is to foster greater technological cooperation and to create a government-to-government memorandum of understanding on AI between the U.S. and the UAE."

Following this, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Peng Xiao, and G42 Chairman Sheikh Tahnoon also led a delegation to Washington last month.

Overall, we can see that there have been significant developments between the USA and the UAE over AI cooperation in just a few months. UAE is not the only Gulf country in this AI race. Saudi Arabia is also trying to access US-made AI chips, especially the Nvidia H200 that is used in OpenAI's GPT-4o.

And as per Abdulrahman Tariq Habib (a top official at the Saudi Data and AI Authority), they might succeed in their plan within the next year.

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