UAE to Build World’s Largest AI Campus Outside U.S. Under Landmark Trump-Era Deal

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States have signed a historic technology agreement to construct the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the U.S., signaling a major policy shift that clears the way for the UAE to access advanced U.S. AI chips, particularly from Nvidia.

Finalized during President Donald Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi, the deal marks a significant easing of restrictions that previously barred such transfers over U.S. concerns about China’s access to critical technologies.

Key Components of the Agreement:

  • The AI campus, covering 10 square miles (25.9 km²), will be located in Abu Dhabi and have 5 gigawatts of power, enough to support 2.5 million Nvidia B200 chips, per estimates by Rand Corporation analyst Lennart Heim.

  • The facility will be developed by G42, a UAE state-backed firm, but operated and managed by American companies, ensuring compliance with U.S. security protocols.

  • The UAE has committed to build or finance data centers in the U.S. that are at least as powerful as those in the UAE, reinforcing reciprocal investment and security alignment.

Chip Access and U.S. Industry Involvement:

  • Sources say the UAE could be permitted to import up to 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced chips annually beginning in 2025.

  • The agreement includes support from U.S. tech giants:

    • Amazon Web Services will collaborate on cybersecurity and cloud adoption.

    • Qualcomm will help establish an AI engineering center in the region.

“American companies will operate the data centers and offer American-managed cloud services throughout the region,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

Strategic Implications:

The deal represents a recalibration of UAE tech policy, allowing it to:

  • Deepen ties with the U.S. on strategic technologies like compute infrastructure and cloud services

  • Maintain economic ties with China, while minimizing reliance on Chinese hardware in critical infrastructure

“It doesn’t mean abandoning China,” said Mohammed Soliman of the Middle East Institute, “but recalibrating tech strategy to align with U.S. standards where it matters most.”

Geopolitical Context:

  • Under Biden, export controls were imposed to prevent chip diversion to China, limiting UAE access.

  • The Trump administration has reversed course, with AI czar David Sacks stating the Biden-era rules were “never intended to capture friends, allies, or strategic partners.”

  • In recent months, G42 and MGX have cut Chinese hardware use and divested from Chinese holdings to meet U.S. compliance conditions.

Still, Huawei and Alibaba Cloud remain active in the UAE, and past AI chip smuggling routes through Singapore, Malaysia, and the UAE have raised flags among U.S. regulators.

This deal marks a strategic turning point not just for U.S.-UAE relations, but for the global AI infrastructure race, cementing the UAE’s ambition to become a top-tier AI superpower—with Washington’s blessing.

Coinbase Faces Up to $400M Loss from Cyberattack, SEC Scrutiny Adds Further Pressure

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Coinbase (COIN.O) warned it could incur a loss of $180 million to $400 million from a cyberattack that breached the account data of a “small subset” of customers, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Thursday. The breach comes at a critical time for the crypto exchange, just days before it is set to join the S&P 500 index.

Breach Details:

  • Coinbase received a ransom email on May 11 from a threat actor claiming to have internal documents and customer data.

  • While login credentials and passwords were not compromised, attackers obtained names, email addresses, and physical addresses.

  • Hackers tricked some users into sending funds, and Coinbase pledged to reimburse those affected.

  • The breach reportedly involved foreign contractors and support staff, several of whom have since been terminated.

Coinbase has refused a $20 million ransom demand and instead offered a $20 million reward for information on the attackers. The company said it’s cooperating with law enforcement and plans to open a new U.S.-based support hub to boost security.

SEC Investigation:

  • In a separate issue, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user figures in past reports.

  • The SEC is specifically reviewing the company’s “verified user” metric, which Coinbase stopped reporting 2.5 years ago.

  • There is speculation that the probe could relate to know-your-customer (KYC) compliance, though Coinbase denies any such inquiry is ongoing.

“This is a hold-over investigation from the prior administration,” said Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer.
“We strongly believe this investigation should not continue.”

The SEC declined to comment on the status of the probe.

Market Impact and Industry Implications:

  • Coinbase shares fell 6.5% following news of the breach and investigation.

  • The incident casts a shadow over its upcoming inclusion in the S&P 500, which had been seen as a milestone for mainstream crypto legitimacy.

  • The breach also adds to industry-wide concerns, following the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February, part of an estimated $2.2 billion in stolen crypto assets in 2024, according to Chainalysis.

“The cyberattack may push the industry to adopt stricter employee vetting and introduce reputational risks,” said Bo Pei, analyst at U.S. Tiger Securities.

Coinbase is now also facing a lawsuit in New York alleging it failed to secure personal data of millions of users.

As the crypto industry matures, the growing scale of attacks and regulatory scrutiny continue to challenge the sector’s trust, security, and investor confidence.

Meta Delays Launch of Flagship ‘Behemoth’ AI Model Over Performance Concerns

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Meta Platforms (META.O) is delaying the release of its much-anticipated “Behemoth” AI model, the company’s most powerful large language model (LLM) to date, amid internal doubts about its performance and readiness, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Originally slated for release in April to coincide with Meta’s inaugural developer AI conference, the internal launch target was later shifted to June. Now, the launch has been postponed to fall or later, people familiar with the matter said.

Reasons for Delay:

  • Engineers at Meta are reportedly struggling to make meaningful improvements in Behemoth’s performance compared to earlier models.

  • Staff have raised questions about whether the upgrades justify a public release, suggesting the model may not yet offer a significant leap over predecessors like Llama 3 or Llama 4.

Meta has not yet commented publicly on the delay, and the Behemoth model remains unreleased as of mid-May.

Development Context:

  • Meta had previously described Behemoth as “one of the smartest LLMs in the world”, intended to act as a teacher model for training smaller, faster models.

  • In April, Meta released other variants in its LLM family, including Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick, but did not follow through with Behemoth’s public debut.

Industry Implications:

  • The delay highlights the growing technical challenges in scaling LLMs meaningfully, especially as performance gains become harder to achieve beyond a certain model size.

  • It comes at a time when AI competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are releasing increasingly powerful models and tools, raising competitive pressure in the LLM arms race.

Meta’s pivot may reflect a more cautious release strategy, likely aimed at avoiding backlash over underwhelming capabilities or potential AI safety concerns.