UAE Blocks Congressional Meetings Over AI Firm G42 Amid U.S. Concerns of Tech Transfer to China
The UAE halted meetings between U.S. Congressional staffers and AI firm G42 following concerns over technology transfer to China. This raises congressional scrutiny over the $1.5 billion Microsoft-G42 deal.
Washington, Bollywood Fever: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) scuttled meetings this month between U.S. Congressional staffers and AI firm G42 after U.S. lawmakers raised concerns that the Emirati company could transfer powerful U.S. AI technology to China, according to a congressional spokesperson.
The UAE Ambassador to the U.S. “personally intervened” to prevent staffers from the House Select Committee on China from meeting G42 and Emirati government officials. The intervention was disclosed by a person briefed on the cancellations who declined to be named due to internal committee policies.
Concerns have been mounting among U.S. lawmakers over a $1.5 billion investment by Microsoft in G42, fearing that sensitive technology could be transferred to the UAE firm, which has historic ties to China.
“The committee has even more concerns about the G42-Microsoft deal given the UAE’s refusal to meet with congressional staff to discuss these issues. As a result, expect Congress to get more involved in oversight of these negotiations,” a committee spokesperson told Reuters.
The canceled meetings may indicate diplomatic fallout from growing efforts by China hardliners in Congress to scrutinize the G42-Microsoft deal and control the flow of sensitive AI technology to the Middle East, over fears of diversion to China.
The State Department declined to comment, and a spokesperson for G42 referred questions to the Emirati government.
A spokesperson for the UAE embassy stated: “There clearly was a miscommunication around the visit,” noting that the UAE Embassy “was only made aware of the staff delegation shortly before it was about to arrive.” The Embassy has met and talked with many of the Committee’s members and staffers in recent months, and “The Committee has been briefed regularly as the UAE and U.S. work to strengthen the control of advanced technologies critical to both countries’ shared security interests.”
The staffers sought the meetings as part of a regional visit on July 16-19 to discuss the transfer of sophisticated chips from companies like Nvidia to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as U.S.-China tech competition.
Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba cited a July 11 letter sent by committee chairman John Moolenaar to U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, seeking an intelligence assessment of Microsoft’s investment in G42. The letter, also signed by House Foreign Affairs chair Michael McCaul, sought a White House briefing before Microsoft’s investment in G42 could advance to a second phase involving the transfer of export-restricted semiconductor chips from Nvidia and model weights, sophisticated data that improves an AI model’s ability to emulate human reasoning.
Last year, the Biden administration imposed new curbs on AI chip exports to cut off avenues for China to obtain them, including imposing a licensing requirement on their shipment to the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries. Despite this, the Biden administration has defended the G42-Microsoft deal because it forced G42 to sever ties with China’s Huawei.
The regional visit, which included staffers from both Democratic and Republican parties, also featured a meeting with Saudi officials. According to the spokesperson, Saudi officials were “very eager to meet with the delegation and expressed a strong desire to address any U.S. concerns about [Chinese government] activities in Saudi Arabia to receive permission to import U.S. advanced chips.”
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