Why G42 Is Considering U.S. Ownership to Protect Its AI Chip Supply

G42’s reported exploration of U.S.-majority ownership is fundamentally an export-control strategy. The Abu Dhabi AI company has temporary access to certain advanced U.S. chips without a case-by-case licence until around April 2027. It is now reportedly considering either a majority sale to U.S. companies or a new U.S.-domiciled entity to improve the odds of retaining access after that window closes. No transaction has been announced. 1

Why a U.S. ownership structure could matter

Advanced AI processors are not treated as ordinary commercial products in Washington. For a company operating large-scale AI infrastructure outside the United States, regulators consider who owns and controls the business, where it operates, and whether its technology and computing capacity can be securely monitored.

A U.S.-incorporated operation with American majority ownership could give G42 a more credible governance and jurisdictional profile for U.S. export-control purposes. That could help address Washington’s long-running concern that sensitive U.S. technology or AI compute could be exposed to China through overseas partnerships, suppliers, or customers.

But incorporation and an equity threshold would not be a permanent chip-access pass. The reported exemption itself is temporary, and future access could still depend on restrictions covering chip end use, physical location, cybersecurity, reporting, audits, governance, and effective control. 1

The groundwork G42 has already laid

The potential ownership overhaul follows a broader pivot away from Chinese technology ties and toward U.S. partners.

In April 2024, Microsoft committed $1.5 billion to G42 in exchange for a minority stake and a board seat. The partnership was backed by security assurances to the U.S. and UAE governments, and G42 agreed to use Microsoft cloud services for its AI applications.

That arrangement came after G42 had divested investments in China and begun removing Chinese technology from its operations amid U.S. concerns about its business relationships. A White House official later described G42’s decision to cut connections with Huawei as a key reason the Microsoft deal was viewed positively.

Reporting in 2026 also said G42 had removed Huawei equipment and adopted U.S.-specified monitoring at data centres. Those measures, if sustained, would fit the same objective as a U.S.-oriented restructuring: demonstrating that sensitive AI infrastructure can be governed and observed under safeguards acceptable to U.S. authorities. 6

What it could mean for Sheikh Tahnoon’s control

G42 is controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE national security adviser and an influential Abu Dhabi royal. A direct sale of a majority stake to U.S. investors would likely reduce his economic ownership in G42. 1

Whether it would also reduce his effective voting control is less clear. That would depend on deal terms that have not been disclosed, including share classes, board appointment rights, veto rights, beneficial ownership provisions, and the scope of any Emirati stake retained in the company.

A separate U.S.-domiciled vehicle could potentially preserve more Emirati influence over G42’s parent company or non-U.S. businesses than an outright majority sale of the whole group. Still, the relevant question for regulators would probably be practical control, not simply where the entity is incorporated or which shareholder holds the largest nominal stake. That remains an inference from the reported options, not a public term sheet. 1

A more American investor base—without a named buyer

A deal would move G42 toward a more U.S.-centred investor and governance base. Microsoft is already a minority strategic investor with board representation, but there is no public evidence that it is the prospective majority buyer.

For G42, the appeal of adding a U.S. controlling investor is therefore regulatory as well as financial: it could align the company’s ownership, technology stack, security commitments, and strategic partnerships more closely with the country that controls access to leading AI accelerators.

Why the 5-gigawatt Abu Dhabi AI campus raises the stakes

Long-term chip access is central to the planned UAE-U.S. AI campus in Abu Dhabi. The site is intended to reach 5 gigawatts of capacity, and its first Stargate UAE phase was expected to come online in 2026 with roughly 100,000 Nvidia chips.

G42 is developing the project with major U.S. technology partners, including OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank. Continued access to processors from Nvidia—and potentially AMD and other U.S. suppliers—is therefore essential to turning the campus from a planned infrastructure project into operating AI capacity. G42 has said initial shipments would be mostly Nvidia chips, alongside AMD and Cerebras systems. 9

A U.S.-oriented restructuring could make the project more credible to suppliers and regulators by reducing perceived control and diversion risks. It would not, however, settle every issue. Reuters reported that the multibillion-dollar campus arrangements still faced unresolved security concerns after their announcement.

The bottom line

G42’s reported options amount to a high-stakes trade-off: accepting more U.S. ownership and oversight in exchange for a stronger path to the advanced chips needed for its long-term AI ambitions. The central uncertainty is how much control Abu Dhabi—and Sheikh Tahnoon—would be willing to relinquish, and whether U.S. officials would regard any new structure as sufficient once the current arrangement expires around April 2027. 1