Key Senate Democrats urged the Trump administration to revisit new artificial intelligence deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, saying that expanded sales of AI chips to the Middle Eastern countries risk exposing advanced technology to China and Russia, while potentially limiting supplies available for American companies.
Agreements unveiled by companies including Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. during President Donald Trump’s trip to the region last week opened the door for the Gulf nations to buy tens of thousands of advanced semiconductors — just as the administration was moving to rescind Biden-era rules capping those countries’ access to chips. The combined moves, warned a group of Senate Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, endanger US national security and economic competitiveness.
“Taken together, these announcements amount to a breathtaking rollback of export control restrictions that have helped maintain the US technological edge to ensure the United States wins the AI race and prevent our adversaries from accessing our most sensitive technologies,” the senators wrote in a letter Monday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The US has restricted sales of advanced AI semiconductors to Saudi Arabia and the UAE since 2023, part of a broader effort to prevent China from accessing banned American technology via intermediaries. Trump administration officials have been negotiating with the Saudi and UAE governments on ways to ease some of those restrictions on sophisticated chips, which the Gulf nations need to fuel their ambitions to become regional AI hubs.
In their letter, the Democratic senators called for ensuring that AI chips deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE contain adequate guardrails to prevent the leakage of sensitive technology to China and Russia. While the two Gulf nations are important regional partners, the lawmakers wrote, they’ve also had previous commercial ties to Chinese entities including Huawei Technologies Co., a telecom equipment maker that’s been targeted by US policymakers over national security concerns for more than a decade.
Spokespeople for the White House, Commerce Department and State Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. On Saturday, Lutnick hailed a new AI data-center partnership with the UAE, emphasizing that security conditions would need to be met.
“Renewed, targeted investment is essential to our nation’s success in this critical technology,” Lutnick wrote in a post on X. “Any advanced semiconductor data center in the UAE or abroad will only be authorized if they operate with US government-approved data center operators and cloud service providers.”
Spokespeople for Nvidia and AMD didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Companies announced their Middle East projects the same week that the Trump administration started the process of revoking the so-called AI diffusion rule launched under President Joe Biden. That measure, which created three tiers of access for countries seeking AI chips, drew intense opposition from American allies and companies like Nvidia over the constraints it placed on nations’ chip purchases. Trump administration officials are now drafting their own approach that’s expected to shift toward negotiating individual deals with countries.
The Democratic lawmakers said the diffusion rule had sought to prevent China and other adversaries from acquiring AI technology — which can be used to craft bioweapons, carry out cyberattacks and conduct widespread surveillance. Trump “is now recklessly undermining these controls,” they wrote.
Spokespeople for the Saudi and UAE embassies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Bilateral agreements taking shape between the US and the Saudi and Emirati governments would still contain provisions aimed at preventing the diversion of technology to China and bar Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing facilities, Bloomberg has reported.
Reservations among Senate Democrats echoed concerns from some China hawks within the Trump administration that the deals unveiled in the Gulf last week lacked adequate measures to keep American chips from ultimately benefiting China, Bloomberg has reported. Some senior Trump officials also questioned the wisdom of shipping large quantities of chips to any location outside the US, given the administration’s focus on maintaining American dominance in AI.
Without adequate protections, the senators wrote, companies will be encouraged to move data infrastructure offshore to the highest bidder, undermining projects in the US. Large-scale sales of advanced microprocessors for artificial intelligence projects in the Gulf region also risk depriving American companies of semiconductors needed for their own projects, they wrote.
“At a time when many US companies need to wait years to acquire cutting-edge AI hardware, we find it deeply troubling that the Trump Administration is prioritizing making our latest technology available to Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” the lawmakers wrote. In addition to Schumer and Warren, the other signers included Senators Jack Reed, Mark Warner, Elissa Slotkin, Chris Coons, Chris Van Hollen and Kirsten Gillibrand.
The Democrats are citing access to components for US companies as a concern at a time when investors are increasingly worried that the worldwide build-out of data centers, which caused tight supply, is slowing. If that slowdown is real, availability would quickly cease to be a problem.
With assistance from Ian King.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.