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White House dismisses concerns about UAE’s possible resale of US microchips to BRICS

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed that the agreement on cooperation on artificial intelligence signed between the US and the UAE last week contains appropriate "security guarantees"

WASHINGTON, May 19. /TASS/. The White House has dismissed concerns by some American officials that the United Arab Emirates can resell advanced microchips they are to receive from the United States to its BRICS partners.

Commenting on this issue at a regular briefing, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed that the agreement on cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) signed between the US and the UAE last week contains appropriate "security guarantees."

"So, read the agreements. There are security guarantees," the White House Spokeswoman said.

"These AI agreements, particularly the one the Secretary of Commerce [Howard Lutnick] signed in the UAE, has security guarantees to ensure that China is not getting the advantage, but the United States is getting the advantage when it comes to AI, and that the UAE and the US are working hand in hand together to invest in this space," she said.

BRICS was created in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011. Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia joined the association on January 1, 2024. Indonesia became a full member in 2025. The group's first partners were Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. On January 17, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry announced that Nigeria had joined BRICS as a partner.

Earlier Bloomberg reported that a number of US administration officials fear that US President Donald Trump's desire to allow the sale of large volumes of advanced microchips to Middle Eastern countries could lead to their distribution to China. Trump intends, in particular, to allow the delivery of more than 1 million advanced microchips from Nvidia to the UAE. Some of them could be sent to G42, the leading AI development company in the UAE.

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