Together, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and the broader Gulf region, are positioning themselves as potential backends of AI for emerging markets across Asia and Africa, laying the groundwork for a U.S.-aligned model of AI partnerships that could, over time, outpace China in the global AI race.
If the United States turns away from willing partners like the UAE and Saudi Arabia—nations that have demonstrated a clear preference for the U.S. stack by working with U.S. companies and investing in U.S. AI infrastructure—out of suspicion or through the narrow lens of the democracy-versus-autocracy framework, Washington risks creating a vacuum that China will be quick to fill.
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