United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has confirmed she will call on the Senate to reverse the sale of 500,000 AI chips to the United Arab Emirates, amidst ‘Spy Sheikh’ revelations.
At the end of last month, reporting found that UAE Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased a secret 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, a Trump family cryptocurrency venture, just days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The purchased stake reportedly created a US$187 million flow to Trump family entities and drew strong backlash and accusations of bribery, as well as concerns that the chip technology could wind up with the Chinese.
Senator Warren called the revelations “corruption, plain and simple” and demanded a reversal of a deal that took place after the investment, which would see 500,000 high-tech AI chips from Nvidia sent to the UAE every year.
Now, she has confirmed she will call on the Senate to back her demands, as well as condemn the deal, this week.
In a draft of the speech she is expected to deliver, shared with CNBC, Warren will accuse the UAE of having “greased the skids” of the Trump administration, leading to the chip deal.
“Why in the world was Donald Trump trying to ship off our state-of-the-art chips to the UAE — and China — when American startups, universities, and small businesses need them here at home?
“Well, now we know that the UAE greased the skids months earlier when it secretly agreed to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a Trump family crypto venture just four days before President Trump’s inauguration", the speech reads.
“Trump is profiting from decisions that make it easier for countries like China to get their hands on some of our most sensitive and advanced technology.”
