Jawaher Almheiri, UAE Commercial Attaché to the United States
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the UAE fully cooperates with the US. Our institutions and infrastructure are built around this partnership. We invest in every layer of the U.S. AI ecosystem, from the innovators developing new AI applications to the energy, semiconductor manufacturing, and infrastructure that make them possible. None of this happened by chance. It took years of relationship building, careful groundwork, and a track record of trust.
I’ve spent enough time in this job that the big days rarely seem as dramatic from the outside. It’s like a meeting. Like a follow-up. Like the same few people showing up over and over again to move something forward one inch at a time. Last week in Washington was one of those weeks, and it reminded me why I do what I do.
The partnership was at its best. Saeed Al Hajeri, Minister of State, led the UAE delegation to the 2nd Pax Silica Summit, which was attended by His Excellency Omran Sharaf and key UAE technology institutions including Core42, G42, MGX and TDRA. By the end of the summit, 35 countries had signed a joint statement on AI opportunities, recommitting to pro-innovation policies, private sector research and development, and resilient technology supply chains.
What impresses me most about gatherings like this is that much of the actual work is set aside and done in rooms where no one writes. Trust is earned, not declared. It was a moment worth stopping to see it come together with people who have spent years doing this work.
The UAE joined Pax Silica in January 2026. This is the natural next step in decades of technology cooperation and is part of a broader $1.4 trillion UAE-US economic and technology framework that I am proud to help advance.
UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba said: “By joining Pax Silica, the UAE is reinforcing the core principles we share with the United States: the future of artificial intelligence must be founded on trust and resilient global partnerships.” You can see what it actually looks like. For example, G42’s Common Working Picture framework provides U.S. partners with continuous, verifiable visibility into U.S.-origin AI semiconductors deployed in the UAE.
In my experience, this kind of trust can only be built deal by deal, contract by contract, and year by year. There are no shortcuts.
The same dedication is reflected in the rest of the photo. America’s advanced AI chips will arrive in the UAE in May 2026, with more to follow. The 5GW UAE-US AI campus in Abu Dhabi, jointly built by G42 and a US company, will bring its first 500MW online this year. Core42 is tripling the capacity of its U.S. data centers. The UAE has invested in frontier US AI companies such as Anthropic and xAI. And Mubadala-backed GlobalFoundries just received a $375 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce to establish a dedicated U.S. quantum foundry.
None of this is new. We have been building the foundation for nearly 10 years. The UAE appointed a minister for AI in 2017. The UAE currently has the highest penetration rate of AI globally, and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has set a goal for 50% of all federal government operations to be performed by agent AI within two years.
The numbers tell the story of what lasting partnerships can produce. Exports of U.S. products to the UAE will reach $31.4 billion in 2025, creating a trade surplus of $23.8 billion, the largest in the MENA region and the fourth-largest global U.S. product trade surplus. The UAE has been the top US export destination in the Middle East and North Africa for the 17th year in a row. Bilateral trade reached a record high of $39 billion in 2025.
I often come back to these numbers, but not for the reasons you might expect. Behind each of these are relationships, negotiations, investments, and keeping promises. Numbers are only the visible surface of years of patient human effort. But more important is what happens next. The architectures being built today, including AI, infrastructure, and trade, will determine how our two countries compete and lead over the next decade.
I’m proud to be able to play a part in that. And I’m even more proud of the people I can do it with.
