Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in a technology firm based in the United Arab Emirates and overseen by the country’s powerful national security adviser.
Microsoft and the technology holding company G42 announced
the deal Tuesday. As part of the agreement, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith,
will join G42’s board of directors.
The deal “was developed in close consultation with both the
UAE and U.S. governments,” Microsoft said.
Based in Abu Dhabi, G42 runs data centers in the Middle East
and elsewhere and has increasingly identified itself as an AI firm. It has
built what’s considered the world’s leading Arabic-language AI model, known as
Jais.
Microsoft said G42 will run its AI applications and services
on the U.S. tech giant’s cloud computing platform, and the two companies will
work to bring digital infrastructure to countries where G42 has established a
presence in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.
G42 has previously said it would cut ties to Chinese
hardware suppliers over American concerns it was too close to the Chinese
government.
The company has faced spying allegations for its ties to a
mobile phone app identified as spyware. It has also faced claims it could have
gathered genetic material secretly from Americans for the Chinese government.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national
security adviser, is chairman of the company’s board.
The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday described the UAE as
a “global player in cutting edge technology” and said it is working with it and
other countries toward “verifiable commitments” for the safe development and
deployment of such technologies.
“When responsibly managed, investments like the one
announced today have the potential to further innovation in digital
technologies around the world,” spokesperson Brittany Caplin said in a written
statement.
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