Elizabeth Dent is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where she focuses on U.S. foreign and defense policy toward the Gulf states, Iraq, and Syria.
In this fifth of several daily videos from Washington Institute scholars, Elizabeth Dent shares details of deals reached or announced in Abu Dhabi on the third day of President Trump's May 2025 trip to the Gulf region.
Today, President Trump arrives on the final stop on his golf tour, the United Arab Emirates, escorted in by Emirati F-16s. The visit marks the first time a U.S. president has visited the country since 2008. Upon arrival to Abu Dhabi, he was received by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. He received a tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and conducted a meeting and state dinner alongside of President Sheikh Mohammed.
The UAE president also presented Trump with the Order of Zayed the UAE's highest civilian honor, in recognition of his efforts to strengthen the U.S.-UAE friendship and strategic partnership. Trump's visit to Abu Dhabi once again underscored the economic and investment deal focus of his golf swing. Though a massive investment deal from the UAE was already announced earlier this year, additional announcements may not be off the table.
In March 2025, while National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed was visiting DC, he announced that the UAE would invest $1.4 trillion over the course of the next ten years, predominantly in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and American manufacturing, including U.S. aluminum production. Two days ago, the Trump administration announced it was rescinding the Biden era AI diffusion rule, which was set to go into effect today, May 15, and would impose caps on how many chips certain countries could import from U.S. companies.
This announcement will come as a welcome relief for the Emiratis, who are seeking to deepen strategic technology and economic ties with the United States. The UAE has made becoming a global leader in AI a key part of its national strategy, and hopes that U.S.-UAE cooperation will become the new cornerstone of the partnership. As part of this, today, the countries signed the US.S.-UAE Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Partnership and the Emirates provided President Trump with an AI cluster presentation to demonstrate their groundbreaking work in this field.
Tomorrow, President Trump is expected to return to Washington.
