Microsoft will invest $1.5 billion in UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42, giving the US tech giant a minority stake and a board seat, the companies announced in a statement on Tuesday.
Under the partnership, G42 will run AI applications and services on Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure, delivering advanced AI solutions to public sector customers and large enterprises worldwide.
“We are working closely with the UAE and U.S. governments to build on world-class technology and world-leading standards for safe, trustworthy and responsible AI,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith, who will serve on G42’s board of directors. We will combine them,” he said. state. ”
Together, the two companies will bring advanced AI and digital infrastructure to countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.
The partnership comes amid U.S. efforts to thwart Beijing’s technological advances, including the U.S. adding four Chinese companies to its export blacklist for acquiring AI chips for the Chinese military.
G42 has begun the long process of divesting its investments in China and withdrawing Chinese hardware amid US concerns over its ties to Chinese companies.
Microsoft and G42 will help establish a $1 billion fund for developers to advance AI skills in the UAE and wider region.
The New York Times, which first reported on the partnership, said the deal imposes a series of protections on AI products shared with G42, including an agreement to exclude Chinese equipment from UAE companies’ operations. He said there was.
According to the paper, the G42 will stop using Huawei’s communications equipment, but the US is concerned that this could serve as a backdoor for Chinese intelligence.
G42 and Azure have collaborated numerous times over the past year, and G42 said it will use Microsoft’s Azure data centers as part of its AI infrastructure to accelerate regional adoption.
