Washington praises G42 safeguards for advanced AI chips

• Congressional hearing in Washington
• G42 system is ‘unprecedented’
• Security controls to track chip use

Efforts by Abu Dhabi technology group G42 to ringfence advanced US microchips have received lavish praise from a US official during a wide-ranging congressional hearing.

The Emirati artificial intelligence developer had said it is building a system to track and secure its next-gen US semiconductors and ensure they are used properly, securely and in line with US rules when they are installed in its data centres. 

Jacob Helberg, US undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and environment, called it “unprecedented”, “incredibly positive” and setting a standard for broader adoption down the line. 

G42 plans to build security controls directly into its AI data centres so it can closely monitor how the computing systems are being used.

“They agreed to build a common operating picture that could allow American policymakers to have total transparency and assurance that the clusters in the UAE used and owned by G42 are not being accessed improperly by individuals and entities that would go against American expert control rules,” Helberg said. 

The hearing focused on the State Department-led Pax Silica initiative to bolster supply chains for critical minerals and AI to prevent technology leaks to China or other US adversaries.

The UAE and Qatar are members, along with Japan, South Korea, Israel, the UK, Australia, India and others. 

G42’s security trial could, if successful, “scale across the Pax Silica ecosystem” Helberg said. 

The Emirates may import as many as 500,000 of Nvidia’s latest semiconductors annually from 2025 to 2027 under an AI Acceleration Partnership the US and UAE signed during President Donald Trump’s trip to the Gulf last May.

The US Commerce Department formally cleared the transfer of 35,000 such chips to G42 in November. Whether more may have been shipped before or after is not clear.

The State Department was contacted for comment.

Helberg said the quota from the AI Acceleration Partnership is “obviously substantial” and that he is not aware of “additional plans to authorise new chips on top of that”.

US officials and legislators have long worried the Gulf could act as a backdoor for Chinese access to sensitive US technology. 

Asked by a Democratic congresswoman about G42’s previous ties to China, Helberg said that, “to the best of his knowledge” those have been severed.

“We did a very thorough due diligence,” he said. 

“The assessment is that on the issues that have been points of concern about the UAE’s connections to China, the UAE government has actually undertaken steps, verifiable steps, to correct for those concerns when they were presented.” 

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Democrats also questioned Helberg about the purchase by Aryam Investment – a company linked to UAE national security adviser and G42 chairman Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan – of 49 percent of World Liberty Financial, a Trump family cryptocurrency venture.

The investment, reported by the Wall Street Journal last month, was made just ahead of Trump’s return to the White House in 2025, and months before his administration approved the Nvidia chip sales to G42. 

Helberg said the UAE is an “incredibly important partner” and investor that has helped revive companies like Global Foundries and Cerebras into “crown jewels” of US technology.

“Your assertions about there being improper conduct I think presumes that the UAE somehow got access to technology that it wouldn’t have been able to get, which is totally not true because we want to export AI chips,” he said.