G42 explores selling a majority stake to US investors to secure permanent access to Nvidia GPUs amid export controls.

G42 can purchase advanced AI chips for now, but Washington has placed a deadline on that access. Shifting ownership to US investors represents the clearest path for Abu Dhabi’s AI champion to maintain a steady supply of Nvidia hardware. G42 is tackling the defining challenge facing every serious AI company today: chips are no longer merely a supply constraint; they are a political permission slip. According to Bloomberg, the Abu Dhabi-based firm has held preliminary discussions regarding the sale of a controlling stake to American investors and its subsequent reincorporation in the United States. No agreement has been finalized or publicly announced, but the strategic rationale is evident.

The timeline began on July 10, 2026, when the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that the UAE would be reclassified into Country Group A:5 under export regulations—a more permissive tier granting broader license-free access to certain controlled items. The same rule designated G42 and Core42 as approved UAE end users for advanced computing equipment. However, a critical caveat applies: absent further BIS action, this authorization expires on April 6, 2027. This is not permanent access; it is a hard deadline.

G42 currently enjoys more leeway than most foreign AI firms. In November 2025, Reuters reported that the Commerce Department authorized exports equivalent to up to 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips to G42 in the UAE and Humain in Saudi Arabia, subject to strict security and reporting conditions. While this allocation establishes G42 as a formidable regional AI infrastructure player, it does not eliminate underlying vulnerability. When a company’s operational roadmap hinges on recurring Washington approvals, true autonomy remains out of reach.

The UAE’s reclassification to Group A:5 clears license-free pathways for advanced Nvidia and AMD AI chips, building upon last year’s G42 approval and reflecting the nation’s Major Defense Partner status alongside its involvement in Operation Epic Fury. This regulatory shift follows a pattern of high-stakes negotiations between G42 and Washington. In April 2024, Microsoft announced a $1.5 billion investment in G42, securing a board seat for president Brad Smith. At the time, both Axios and Reuters reported that the deal carried explicit geopolitical conditions: G42 would phase out Chinese technology, including Huawei equipment, following years of scrutiny over its ties to Beijing.

That oversight was highly specific. In January 2024, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party formally requested that the Commerce Department investigate G42 and affiliated entities, citing relationships with Huawei, BGI, Tencent, and other Chinese firms. Earlier reports from The New York Times indicated that US intelligence agencies had raised concerns regarding G42’s collaborations with Chinese companies, while Fortune subsequently revealed that the CIA had compiled a classified profile of G42 CEO Peng Xiao. G42 has consistently denied these allegations, maintaining that it has actively aligned with US partners since 2022.

For Abu Dhabi, the calculus is complex. G42 is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and one of the emirate’s most influential leaders. The company is far from a peripheral venture; it sits at the core of the UAE’s strategy to convert oil wealth into compute and data center capacity, ultimately hosting proprietary AI models. Nevertheless, Nvidia chips remain firmly within American jurisdiction, granting Washington decisive leverage. No Gulf sovereign fund can simply purchase unrestricted access. Capital is abundant in Abu Dhabi; Blackwell-class supply is not.

Securing a US majority stake would directly address the BIS expiration condition in the most unambiguous manner. Majority American ownership would complicate efforts by US officials to treat G42 as a standard foreign buyer operating outside export-control frameworks. It would also require ceding meaningful control over an enterprise designed to advance the UAE’s AI ambitions—a concession that underscores where ultimate leverage resides.

The stakes are quantified by the planned Stargate UAE initiative. In May 2025, OpenAI announced that Stargate UAE would deploy a 1-gigawatt AI compute cluster in Abu Dhabi, with an initial 200 megawatts slated for activation in 2026. G42 stated that the broader UAE-US AI Campus would span 5 gigawatts, involving partnerships with OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank. Under this structure, G42 would construct the cluster while OpenAI and Oracle manage operations. Such large-scale deployments cannot rely on diplomatic goodwill alone; they require uninterrupted chip deliveries, power infrastructure, networking equipment, security clearances, and a supply chain resilient to future policy shifts in Washington. Additionally, Bloomberg reported on September 3 that G42 is evaluating a multibillion-dollar fundraising round, though final terms remain undecided. While this capital raise differs from the ownership restructuring, both initiatives respond to the same structural pressures: G42 requires external funding, American regulatory cover, and a definitive resolution to US export-control uncertainties.

The demand backdrop is intensifying. Dell Technologies reported record fiscal Q2 2027 revenue of $47.0 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $7.04, while its AI-optimized server backlog nearly doubled over three months to $95 billion. The company upgraded its full-year guidance and confirmed ongoing supply constraints across DRAM, NAND, and CPUs.

Washington’s legislative branch is already monitoring the intersection of Gulf AI investments and domestic politics. In February 2026, Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove directed the Commerce Department’s inspector general to investigate the UAE chip approvals, highlighting Sheikh Tahnoon’s reported connections to World Liberty Financial and the authorization of advanced AI hardware sales. Senator Chris Murphy issued similar criticisms days earlier. Regardless of political framing, the underlying dynamic is clear: as AI hardware grows more sensitive, compliance and ownership structures become paramount. No final transaction has been announced, and G42 has not publicly verified the structure Bloomberg outlined. Yet the trajectory is unmistakable. Access to the chips driving the current AI race requires accepting rigorous scrutiny from the nation that controls their production—extending beyond mere vendor selection into corporate governance and geopolitical alignment.