Nvidia shares rose 2% in premarket trading after the US approved export licenses enabling Microsoft to ship advanced GB300 GPUs to the United Arab Emirates. The licenses, granted in September under strict technology safeguards, cover the equivalent of 60 400 A100 chips and mark the first such approvals under the Trump administration.

Microsoft said the chips will support AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, open-source providers, and Microsoft itself, boosting the UAE’s ambitions in artificial intelligence. Microsoft President Brad Smith highlighted longstanding US-UAE cooperation as key to securing the approvals.

The move coincides with Microsoft’s expanded investment in the UAE, totalling $15.2 billion by 2030, including $1.5 billion in AI firm G42 and $5.5 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure. Analysts say the chips are crucial for giving UAE developers a global AI edge.