Silicon Valley’s Bad Bet on the Gulf
Key takeaways
- AARON BARTNICK is a Nonresident Fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.
- Why the AI Build-Out Was Doomed From the Start
- When President Donald Trump returned from a trip to the Gulf in May 2025, he trumpeted $2.2 trillion in bilateral deals the United States had signed with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
AARON BARTNICK is a Nonresident Fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy. From 2024 to 2025, he served as Assistant Director for Technology Security and Governance at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Why the AI Build-Out Was Doomed From the Start
When President Donald Trump returned from a trip to the Gulf in May 2025, he trumpeted $2.2 trillion in bilateral deals the United States had signed with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition to defense and economic partnerships, a significant share of those deals addressed artificial intelligence—and, specifically, building American AI infrastructure in the Gulf. The proposition for American technology companies was compelling: abundant cheap energy, access to capital from sovereign wealth funds, lower regulatory barriers for data center construction, and U.S. government approval for previously restricted chip sales. For Washington, the deals offered an opportunity to speed up advancements in American AI capabilities and incentivize the Gulf to partner less with China on AI.