Trump touts $200 billion in UAE deals in wrapping Mideast trip

The Trump administration had been weighing a deal that would allow the UAE to import more than a million advanced Nvidia Corp. chips.

US President Donald Trump has secured $200 billion in deals during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, according to the White House, including agreements involving artificial intelligence that will boost the Gulf nation’s technological ambitions.

“These deals will significantly expand investment in the United States and U.S. market access in the United Arab Emirates,” the White House said in a statement Thursday.

The announcements came during the third and final leg of the US president’s visit to the Middle East, where he highlighted investments earlier in the week of $600 billion from Saudi Arabia and more than $243 billion with Qatar. Trump made scoring business deals a centerpiece of his first planned overseas trip since returning to office.

The deals and initiatives with the UAE include:

A $14.5 billion commitment from Etihad Airways to invest in 28 Boeing Co. 787 and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines.

ExxonMobil Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., and EOG Resources Inc. plan to partner with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to expand oil and natural gas production valued at $60 billion.

A $4 billion primary aluminum smelter project that Emirates Global Aluminum will develop in Oklahoma.

RTX Corp. is partnering with Emirates Global Aluminum and the UAE’s Tawazun Council on a gallium project to shore up US critical mineral supplies.

AI has been central to many of the agreements Trump has negotiated in the region. Gulf nations have been eager to secure greater access to cutting-edge chips in a bid to become hubs for the emerging technology and diversify their economies. Thursday’s announcements include:

Plans for Qualcomm Inc. to help develop a new “global engineering center” in Abu Dhabi focused on AI and data centers.

A new AI campus in the UAE that will be built by G42, the crown jewel of the country’s tech ambitions, and operated in partnership with several US companies. The US Commerce Department said the campus will include 5 gigawatts of capacity for AI data centers, providing a regional platform for large-scale providers of cloud or computing services.

Amazon Web Services Inc., e& — formerly telecom company Etisalat — and the UAE Cybersecurity Council will partner on bolstering public cloud services in the country.

The Trump administration had been weighing a deal that would allow the UAE to import more than a million advanced Nvidia Corp. chips. Trump has also worked out arrangements for parties in Saudi Arabia to acquire tens of thousands of semiconductors from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The flurry of AI deals, though, has opened a rift within the administration, where China hawks are increasingly concerned that the projects put US national security and economic interests at risk.