(MENAFN- Live Mint) The US has approved exports worth billions of dollars of Nvidia chips to the United Arab Emirates, making it the first of its kind under the Donald Trump administration.

The Nvidia chip export approval comes as part of a deal between the US and the UAE that could serve as a blueprint for American AI statecraft but has been laden with controversy.

In a recent notification, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security issued the licenses to Nvidia to export under the terms of a bilateral AI agreement hashed out in May, Bloomberg reported quoting people familiar with the development.

Nvidia has however not secured permits to export for G42, which is partnering with OpenAI on a campus in the UAE's capital city, according to the report.

It is not clear how and when the additional licenses and will depend in part on how the UAE's specific investment plans unfold.

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Under the accord, the oil-rich UAE will match in investment what it receives in chip shipments, on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

That approval came after the UAE made concrete plans for a reciprocal amount of investment on American soil, a US official said. The official did not specify the exact value of the approved chip shipments and Emirati investment.

Sign of progress

The licenses given to Nvidia come as a sure sign of progress on the agreement that the US and UAE signed five months ago in May centered on a massive five-gigawatt data centre in the middle of Abu Dhabi where OpenAI may come as a tenant.

That accord has been the source of significant chatter in the US, where some Trump officials at the Capitol have raised concerns about building such a large site outside the US, especially in a place where China has built significant industry.

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Securing the permits is a top priority for the UAE, where some officials have grown frustrated with what they see as a slow pace of US approvals. AI is among the top priorities for the Gulf nation, which is spending massively on infrastructure at home and overseas.

However, Abu Dhabi has committed to a massive $1.4 trillion investment in the US over the next 10 year, which is underpinning such decisions from Washington.

The US, meanwhile, planned to approve up to 500,000 advanced American AI chips annually, with a fifth slated for Abu Dhabi AI juggernaut G42.

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