Trump’s Middle East Chip Deals Are the ‘Art Of The Steal,’ Presenting Major National Security Risk Of China Stealing Sensitive American Technology; Leader Schumer And Senator Warren Lead Senate Democrats In Standing Up Against The Loss Of Building The AI Future In America And Urges Admin To Reconsider Catastrophic Agreements
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren led several Senate Democrats in sending a letter to Secretary Lutnick and Secretary Rubio urging them to reconsider President Trump’s recent AI chip ‘deals’ with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chris Coons (D-DE), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), sent the following letter to Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, urging the administration to reconsider the chip ‘deals’ that President Trump announced with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These deals – without any clear and enforceable protections to stop this sensitive technology from falling into China’s hands – present an immediate national security threat. Selling away America’s AI crown jewels to the highest bidder in the Middle East also undercuts the effort to build the AI future in America and could erode U.S. leadership in this critical technology offshoring American innovation and jobs.
“Without clear protections, these deals incentivize companies to offshore data infrastructure to the highest bidder around the world– a game the Saudis and Emiratis are eager to play,” the Senators wrote. “We should be prioritizing American leadership in AI, making sure American technology prioritizes the buildout of this critical industry here at home, not abroad, and certainly not without strict guardrails to protect our national security. The President is doing the opposite–and he is getting precious little in return.”
While the Senators acknowledge that both Saudia Arabia and the UAE are important regional partners, appropriate national security protections are necessary to prevent sensitive American technology from ultimately flowing to China given these countries’ past records of doing deals with the Chinese Communist Party, questions remain on how President Trump’s personal financial interests may be benefiting from giving away America’s AI technology.
“The real benefits accrued through these deals appear to be to President Trump personally, whose net worth is growing rapidly after Saudi and Emirati funds bought his family’s cryptocurrencies in recent weeks,” the Senators wrote.
The tremendous national security risks are precisely why the Biden administration put in place export controls to ensure China could not exploit American technology sent to the Middle East, and to protect against the erosion of AI infrastructure in America to the benefit of other parts of the world. The Trump administration has stymied this progress, rolling back export control restrictions that are critical to America winning the AI race and preventing China and other adversaries from stealing our technology. This Trump retreat, coupled with the Saudi and UAE deals, are major causes for concern about the Trump administration prioritizing personal gain over the necessity of American AI leadership and national security.
The text of the letter can be found here and below.
***
Dear Secretary Lutnick and Secretary Rubio,
We write with grave concern regarding President Donald Trump’s so-called “chip deals” with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These deals greenlight the sale of sensitive U.S. technology in exchange for illusory promises of foreign investment. If completed, they will present an immediate threat to U.S. national security, and over the long term, may irreversibly erode U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) by offshoring American technology and jobs. We strongly urge you to reconsider.
During his trip to the Middle East this week, the President announced a series of deals that involve selling millions of the world’s most advanced chips to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These deals come on the heels of last week’s decision to rescind the AI Diffusion Rule,[1] which imposed limits on the number of high-end AI chips that could be shipped to these countries. Taken together, these announcements amount to a breathtaking rollback of export control restrictions that have helped maintain the U.S. technological edge to ensure the United States wins the AI race and prevent our adversaries from accessing our most sensitive technologies.
Unsurprisingly, such a massive rollback of national security guardrails is a bad deal for the United States. The agreements outlined in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi will allow the two countries to build some of the world’s most powerful AI supercomputers in the next few years, helping them rival the United States in terms of infrastructure for AI computing. AI infrastructure plays a key role in the development of powerful AI systems that can be used to create bioweapons, develop advanced military systems, engage in offensive cyber operations, and supercharge mass surveillance. These are dangerous capabilities – precisely why the Biden Administration imposed export licenses on advanced chips, with a particular focus on preventing the PRC from exploiting U.S. technology. The President is now recklessly undermining these controls.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are important regional partners. Nonetheless, we should ensure any deal include important guardrails on human rights and potential downstream exportation of such technology to our adversaries in Russia and the PRC. In recent years, the two countries have partnered with Huawei, conducted joint exercises with the People’s Liberation Army, and built relationships with PRC military universities. Given Russia and the PRC’s coordinated effort to gain strongholds in the Middle East, the PRC military could gain access to Saudi and UAE AI infrastructure and use it train models that will be deployed to threaten American troops stationed abroad or the U.S. homeland.
These deals will also come at the expense of U.S. startups that need access to advanced chips to seed the next generation of innovation in AI. There is currently a shortage of AI chips in the United States.[2] Chipmaker Nvidia has warned that the company’s latest Blackwell processor is backlogged until the end of 2025,[3] and even the most well-resourced players like OpenAI are struggling to get hold of enough advanced chips. Fulfilling the orders announced in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi this week will likely require deprioritizing U.S. customers. At a time when many U.S. 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 over U.S. start-ups and small businesses.
Over the long term, the consequences may be even more dire. Without clear protections, these deals incentivize companies to offshore data infrastructure to the highest bidder around the world– a game the Saudis and Emiratis are eager to play. We should be prioritizing American leadership in AI, making sure American technology prioritizes the buildout of this critical industry here at home, not abroad, and certainly not without any guardrails to protect our national security. The President is doing the opposite–and he is getting precious little in return.
Despite the Gulf states promising trillions of dollars in direct investment in the United States,[4] and despite the areas of shared interest when it comes to regional stability, the President only secured a few hundred billion dollars during his trip this week, and news reports suggest that number is heavily inflated.[5] The real benefits accrued through these deals appear to be to President Trump personally, whose net worth is growing rapidly after Saudi and Emirati funds bought his family’s cryptocurrencies in recent weeks.[6]
We support sensible commerce with other countries that drives U.S. economic growth and sustains our technological leadership. Unfortunately, these deals are not that. We strongly urge you to reconsider them.
###