US Reviving AI Chip Shipments to Fuel Wars in the Middle East
On Monday, September 30, the US Commerce Department made a surprising move by expanding export restrictions first introduced in October 2023, forcing US export control restrictions to seek special licenses for advanced chip shipments to parts of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Under the new rule, data centers can apply for “Validated End User” status for the first time, allowing them to receive AI chips through general authorization. A US official explained that the government will work closely with foreign data centers and their hosting countries to ensure the technology is kept secure and not misused in ways that could violate any export restriction and national security threats.
While Nvidia is the world’s leading AI chips maker, there are growing concern that the Middle East can act as a backdoor to China’s accessing banned US technologies. And this causes alarming questions in regard to the NVidia export restrictions.
One such company, AI company G42 from the UAE, which had close ties with China in the past, has come under scrutiny. In April, Microsoft invested $1.5 billion into G42 in exchange for chips and advanced AI models-a relationship that raised eyebrows among some US lawmakers in regard to the export restricted.
Mushrooming Concerns with Geopolitical Shifts
The newly revised rule attempts to hit a fine balance between AI development internationally and the national security imperatives of the US.
The US Commerce Department stated in that direction that it’s known that any data center seeking to apply under this program will be strictly scrutinized in such a way that prevents sensitive technology from being diverted in their favor.
These inspections would examine such things as business activities, cybersecurity measures, and potential customers, coupled with export restrictions and on-site review requirements by US government officials. This is also at a period when the US is increasing its financial assistance to Israel, with an $8.7 billion tech funding package intended to upgrade the technological capability of Israel. There has been criticism of this aid, especially as Israel has continued its harsh military operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
The funding, some say, is being used to further advancement in Israel’s technological capabilities while its ongoing genocidal war on Lebanon and Gaza which raises ethical and political questions.
Living Off from Global Conflicts
With the US loosening its export restrictions while continuing to funnel massive funds toward Israel, begs many questions of how the US economy benefits from wars and conflicts overseas. The military industrial complex, a long-driving force behind US foreign policy, is again brought into focus by this latest development in AI chip exports serves only to further highlight that very issue.
The US fosters innovation and technology development in the Middle East while simultaneously, through financial and technological support of its allies, such as Israel, indirectly fueling various conflicts in the region.
War initiated by the US, either directly or through proxy countries, have historically pushed its economic growth and power, through the sales of arms, technological devices, and the ongoing funding of Israel to continue its genocidal acts on the Middle East as we’re seeing in Occupied Palestine and Lebanon. Such actions obviously perpetuate global instability and raise critical questions the extend of how much “the land of the brave and the free” is benefiting from the Middle Easterns wars it has imposed on the region, and even profits off these wars, prolonging conflict and war.
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