Nvidia shares rose 5.6% on Tuesday after Washington and Riyadh announced a vast plan to fund artificial‑intelligence work.
The chip maker’s stock was still 4.5% lower for the year as of the market close on 13 May, as reported by Euronews. Tension in U.S.-China trade and the arrival of DeepSeek, a cheaper Chinese AI model, have weighed on the price despite high demand for high‑end processors.
Chief executive Jensen Huang travelled to Riyadh with President Donald Trump and a group of U.S. technology leaders, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, AMD’s Lisa Su and Palantir’s Alex Karp.
At the conference, the White House said Saudi Arabia will direct about $600 billion toward U.S. projects. The investment consists of $142 billion in defense sales and roughly $80 billion for “cutting‑edge transformative technologies” in both countries, plus other deals in energy, aerospace, and sports.
Trump also promised to lift remaining U.S. sanctions on Syria, aiming to improve ties with regional capitals. He is expected to meet the rulers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates later in the week.
Nvidia to send 18,000 Grace Blackwell supercomputers to Saudi Arabia
Nvidia used the stage to unveil a partnership with HUMAIN, an AI arm of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
The two sides said the goal is to turn the kingdom into “a global powerhouse in AI, cloud and enterprise computing, digital twins and robotics.” Over the next five years, Nvidia will ship 18,000 units of its GB200 Grace Blackwell supercomputer, linked with InfiniBand, in the first phase. Those chips will anchor new AI factories planned by HUMAIN with a projected power capacity of up to 500 megawatts.
Further orders will go to the Saudi Data & AI Authority, which plans to install up to 5,000 Blackwell graphics processors to run a sovereign AI facility and to build smart‑city systems. Aramco Digital, the technical arm of state oil company Saudi Aramco, will cooperate with Nvidia on wider computing networks.
Officials say the projects fit within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 program to broaden an economy still tied to crude. The government wants to attract at least $100 billion in foreign direct investment every year.
Bloomberg reported that the Trump team is also weighing a deal with the UAE that would let the Gulf state import more than one million top‑tier Nvidia chips, far above the export ceiling set during former president Joe Biden’s tenure.
US eases chip export rules, clearing path for Saudi‑focused AI investments
AMD, Global AI, Amazon, Cisco, and OpenAI all outlined investment plans linked to Saudi Arabia.
U.S. regulators moved in parallel. The Department of Commerce said on Tuesday it will scrap the “AI diffusion rule” adopted in January, during Mr. Biden’s final month in office, which had been due to start on 15 May.
The rule would have widened controls on advanced chip exports to many countries to block indirect sales to China. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were both covered.
“The Trump administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to advance American AI technology with trusted foreign partners, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries. At the same time, we reject the Biden administration’s attempt to impose its own ill‑conceived and counterproductive AI policies on the American people,” the department said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security, an office inside Commerce, also issued new guidance to tighten individual export licences and close any routes that might let Beijing obtain advanced U.S. chips.
Industry analysts say the combined steps could give U.S. chip makers fresh access to Gulf demand while Washington keeps direct pressure on China.
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