The US State Department’s unbiased watchdog acknowledged a request from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Elise Slotkin to investigate Trump administration officials over chip sales to the UAE.
The State Department’s Workplace of the Inspector Basic famous the request “to investigate senior administration officials’ roles in advocating for the US to promote delicate nationwide safety expertise to the UAE”, in a letter dated 12 December, in accordance to Semafor.
The letter, which appeared to be a regular response, didn’t commit to any investigation.
Warren and Slotkin referred to as for an investigation into David Sacks, President Donald Trump’s White Home AI Czar, and diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, in September.
“The senators are in search of extra info concerning the roles Sacks and Witkoff could have performed in advocating for america to promote delicate nationwide safety expertise to the United Arab Emirates and the extent to which they stood to achieve financially from these offers,” the letter from September mentioned.
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“Mr Witkoff and Mr Sacks each performed key roles within the White Home’s choice to chill out nationwide safety restrictions on the cargo of superior AI programs to the UAE,” the lawmakers mentioned. “Neither of them have disclosed their monetary ties to the UAE’s nationwide safety adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the private advantages they’ve obtained from the Sheikh’s $2 billion funding within the president’s stablecoin, USD1.”
The request got here following a report within the New York Occasions that detailed a gathering between Witkoff and the UAE’s nationwide safety adviser and AI czar, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, off the coast of Sardinia in the summertime.
The report mentioned that Witkoff advocated promoting superior AI chips to the UAE on the identical time his son, Zach, introduced that World Liberty Monetary, a crypto-firm he runs with Trump’s two sons, obtained a $2bn deposit from considered one of Tahnoon’s corporations.
Sacks was the principle advocate for promoting superior AI chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The NYT report mentioned that Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund was an early investor in Craft Ventures, a agency that Sacks helped begin in 2017. One other investor was Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund.
In November, the Trump administration authorized the export of tens of 1000’s of Nvidia’s superior AI chips to the UAE’s state-owned AI tech titan, G42, together with its state-owned Saudi rival, Humain.
Each Gulf nations have been eager to buy superior American AI chips throughout President Joe Biden’s time in workplace, however have been unable to overcome extra stringent export controls. Saudi Arabia and the UAE need to plow their plentiful, low cost vitality into AI knowledge centres and export that computing knowledge.
AI chips are thought of dual-use expertise as a result of they can be utilized in civilian and navy functions. As well as, some US officials have been cautious of exporting the US’s most superior expertise to the Gulf for concern it will likely be offered on to China and copied.
The Trump administration, nonetheless, had prioritised sales. With its plentiful land and low cost electrical energy costs, the Gulf is a serious marketplace for AI chip exporters. The business has powered the US inventory market greater this 12 months amid broader issues in regards to the well being of the worldwide financial system.
The Trump administration’s actions recommend it isn’t nervous in regards to the warnings of China hawks within the nationwide safety institution. This month, the White Home even authorized the sale of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, in a deal that may see the US authorities accumulate a 25 p.c price from the sales.
The H200 is much less refined than the Nvidia Blackwell chips authorized for export to G42 and Humain.
On Monday, Warren and Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks referred to as on the Trump administration to disclose particulars of any approvals of ongoing license evaluations for sales to China.
