US clears export of superior AI chips to UAE beneath Microsoft deal, Axios says

(Reuters) -The U.S. authorities has accepted the export of superior synthetic intelligence chips to a Microsoft-operated facility within the United Arab Emirates as a part of the corporate’s highly-scrutinized partnership with Emirati AI agency G42, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two individuals acquainted with the deal.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) invested $1.5 billion in G42 earlier this 12 months, giving the U.S. firm a minority stake and a board seat. As a part of the deal, G42 would use Microsoft’s cloud companies to run its AI functions.

The deal, nonetheless, was scrutinized after U.S. lawmakers raised issues G42 might switch highly effective U.S. AI expertise to China. They requested for a U.S. evaluation of G42’s ties to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering, army and authorities earlier than the Microsoft deal advances.

The U.S. Commerce Division, Microsoft and G42 didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.

The accepted export license requires Microsoft to stop entry to its facility within the UAE by personnel who’re from nations beneath U.S. arms embargoes or who’re on the U.S. Bureau of Business and Safety’s Entity Record, the Axios report stated.

The restrictions cowl individuals bodily in China, the Chinese language authorities or personnel working for any group headquartered in China, the report added.

U.S. officers have stated that AI techniques might pose nationwide safety dangers, together with by making it simpler to engineer chemical, organic and nuclear weapons. The Biden administration in October required the makers of the biggest AI techniques to share particulars about them with the U.S. authorities.

G42 earlier this 12 months stated it was actively working with U.S. companions and the UAE’s authorities to adjust to AI improvement and deployment requirements, amid issues about its ties to China.

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Funding Firm, the UAE’s ruling household and U.S. non-public fairness agency Silver Lake maintain stakes in G42. The corporate’s chairman, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the UAE’s nationwide safety advisor and the brother of the UAE’s president.