{"text":[[{"start":10.89,"text":"The US has allowed Microsoft to ship the latest Nvidia chips to the United Arab Emirates for the first time, paving the way for the Seattle-based group to expand its multibillion-dollar investment in the Gulf."}],[{"start":25.78,"text":"The Middle East has become a crucial battleground in Washington’s struggle with Beijing for AI leadership."}],[{"start":32.96,"text":"US President Donald Trump struck a deal in May with UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to build a vast AI data centre campus in Abu Dhabi, a project in which Microsoft-backed G42 is a key partner."}],[{"start":51.04,"text":"But the Abu Dhabi project had been held back by the Department of Commerce’s export controls on the powerful Nvidia chips needed to run the latest AI systems."}],[{"start":62.59,"text":"Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, told the Financial Times on Monday that in September the group became “the first company to receive a licence under the Trump administration” to export Nvidia’s AI chips to the UAE."}],[{"start":88.69,"text":"“You cannot get those export licences unless you’re able to meet the requirements that have been imposed by the US government,” Smith said. “We earned it by satisfying very stringent cyber security, physical security and other security requirements.”"}],[{"start":104.08,"text":"Microsoft now plans to increase its UAE investment from $7.3bn over the past three years, to more than $7.9bn from 2026 to 2029, of which $5.5bn will go on capital spending for AI and cloud infrastructure."}],[{"start":127.33,"text":"The US tech group has not specified where it plans to deploy the latest batch of Nvidia chips. Microsoft needed commerce department approval for exporting the chips it buys from Silicon Valley-based Nvidia to certain countries including the UAE."}],[{"start":144.26,"text":"Microsoft last year invested $1.5bn in G42, the Emirati AI company that is building the Abu Dhabi facility announced in May."}],[{"start":156.75,"text":"That deal was seen as a critical to America’s efforts to tighten its alliance with the UAE and reduce China’s influence in the region’s AI push."}],[{"start":167.88,"text":"The UAE is betting big on AI, putting the technology at the heart of its economic diversification plans and even lawmaking, making the country a leading adopter of AI around the world, according to a recent Microsoft survey."}],[{"start":183.66,"text":"The region will also play a vital role in disseminating AI technology through what Smith called the “global south”, running from the Middle East and southern Europe to Africa and east Asia."}],[{"start":196.3,"text":"“We run a risk that AI diffusion will become increasingly uneven,” Smith said, which he argued could deepen global economic inequality."}],[{"start":206.38000000000002,"text":"“There obviously is a race between the US and China,” Smith said. “People often focus for first and foremost on the race for advanced AI model development.”"}],[{"start":218.71000000000004,"text":"“But I think the AI diffusion race is probably even more important than the race on the technology frontier,” he added. “And this is where the stronger relationship between the United States and the United Arab Emirates becomes critical.”"}],[{"start":235.45000000000005,"text":"The new permits allow Microsoft to make a fourfold increase in the AI computing power that it can deploy in the UAE. “I fully anticipate we will be needing more licences, I would venture within the next six to 12 months, if not sooner,” Smith said."}],[{"start":253.24000000000004,"text":"“I have confidence in our ability to get these licences given the work that we have done to meet the stringent requirements and conditions that the administration quite properly has established,” he added."}],[{"start":null,"text":"