G42 weighs selling majority stake to U.S. firms to keep AI chip access

Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence firm G42 has held exploratory talks about selling a majority stake to American companies in a bid to guarantee access to advanced AI chips beyond next year, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The discussions, which remain at an early stage with no final decisions made, could mark a sweeping transformation of a company overseen by an influential member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.theedgesingapore+1

Options under consideration include bringing in a U.S. company as majority shareholder or setting up an entirely new U.S.-domiciled vehicle, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because the information is confidential. A representative for G42 declined to comment.aiweekly+1

A Ticking Clock on Chip Access

The urgency stems from a July 2026 U.S. Commerce Department reclassification that placed the UAE in a more favorable export category, allowing G42 to purchase cutting-edge processors from Nvidia ↗ 2.78% and AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ↗ 11.04% without a special U.S. license — but only for a nine-month window expiring around April 2027. Before that reclassification, G42 had already secured U.S. approval in November 2025 for up to 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell-equivalent chips.cryptobriefing+2

Reincorporating as a U.S. entity with majority American ownership would offer something more durable than a time-limited exemption. U.S. export controls increasingly hinge on who ultimately directs a company, where it is incorporated, and how easily its operations can be audited.cryptobriefing

A Pattern of Concessions

G42 has a track record of restructuring to satisfy Washington. Microsoft ↘ 0.99% invested $1.5 billion in the firm in April 2024, but the deal came with a pointed condition: G42 had to divest its Chinese investments, including ties to Huawei. The company has since built U.S.-specified monitoring systems into its own data centers.theoutpost+2

G42 already counts Microsoft, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. among its investors. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the firm had also held separate exploratory talks with potential investors about raising billions of dollars.bloomberg+1

Reshaping AI's Geopolitics

The potential restructuring underscores how U.S. chip export policy is reaching beyond trade barriers and into the ownership and governance structures of major AI firms outside America. For G42, which is building a 5-gigawatt UAE-U.S. AI campus in Abu Dhabi with American hyperscalers as prospective tenants, the calculus appears straightforward: structural access to chips is worth more than maintaining the current ownership arrangement. Whether Sheikh Tahnoon's camp ultimately cedes voting control remains the central unresolved question.semafor+1