Washington reclassifies the UAE to a more favorable trade group, unlocking license-free access to advanced AI semiconductors and defense tech.
The US Department of Commerce reclassified the UAE from EAR Country Groups D:3 and D:4 to Country Group A:5, a move that dramatically expands the Gulf state’s ability to buy advanced AI chips, military equipment, satellites, and spacecraft without the usual licensing headaches.
Country Group A:5 designation places the UAE under the Strategic Trade Authorization program. That means a wide range of dual-use items, including high-end AI chips, can now flow to approved UAE entities without individual export licenses.
The groundwork was laid with previous approvals that allowed UAE firm G42 and HUMAIN to purchase up to 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell GB300 chips, a deal valued at roughly $1 billion. Those earlier transactions came with strict security conditions to prevent technology diversion. The longer-term ambition discussed in 2025 called for the UAE to eventually receive the equivalent of 500,000 Nvidia AI chips annually.
That buildout has a name: Stargate UAE, a planned 5 gigawatt AI campus in Abu Dhabi. To put that power figure in perspective, 5 GW is roughly the electricity output of five nuclear power plants, all dedicated to AI workloads.
For Nvidia specifically, the UAE reclassification effectively removes a major bureaucratic bottleneck. Instead of navigating the export license process for each transaction, approved entities in the UAE can now purchase chips under a streamlined framework. The $1 billion G42 deal for 35,000 Blackwell chips gives a rough sense of the economics. Scale that up by a factor of fourteen, and you start to see why chip makers are paying very close attention to Gulf state AI strategies. There are risks to watch. The compliance requirements aren’t going away. The UAE must continue meeting US safeguards to prevent diversion of sensitive technology, and any slip-up could lead to restrictions being reimposed.
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