Key points
- Bloomberg reports G42 weighing US majority ownership
- Chip authorization expires April 6, 2027
- Microsoft (MSFT) holds a minority stake and a board seat
- The export rule names G42 and Core42 directly
G42, the Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company, has held exploratory talks about selling a majority stake to American companies or setting up an entirely new vehicle in the United States, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. No final decision has been made.
The talks are driven by a date written into US export rules. The Bureau of Industry and Security moved the United Arab Emirates out of Country Groups D:3 and D:4 and into Country Group A:5 in a final rule effective July 10, 2026, giving approved UAE entities license-free access to advanced computing items. G42 is on that approved list, and its place on it comes with an expiration date.
The rule names the company outright. In the table of approved end users, BIS lists Group 42 Holding Ltd doing business as G42, including G42 Cloud Technology LLC, alongside Core42 Technology Projects LLC. A note attached to that table sets the limit: "Absent subsequent notice by BIS, the authorization provided for G42 and Core42 in this supplement shall automatically expire on April 6, 2027."
BIS also wrote down what it expects to happen before then. "If the two UAE-based AI companies fail to become U.S. companies on or before April 6, 2027, they will need to apply for authorization pursuant to the Sec. 748.3(c) process to maintain their approved status," the rule says.
That fallback is an advisory opinion request. BIS said any determination would be "based on a case-by-case assessment of U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, including the applicant's compliance capabilities and track record." Section 748.3(c) sets out how to file such a request and what it must contain. Under Section 750.2(b), BIS says advisory opinions will be answered within 30 calendar days, compared with the 90-day processing limit for license applications under Section 750.4. Neither provision guarantees approval.
The same rule creates a separate lane for American firms. Subsidiaries of US-headquartered AI companies named in the supplement can receive advanced computing items license-free, and BIS said approval of a parent extends to its subsidiaries. UAE government agencies, including the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces, are approved recipients as well. BIS said it wrote the rule to be consistent with the May 2025 US-UAE Artificial Intelligence Cooperation framework and, in its words, "without compromising U.S. digital infrastructure buildout."
Microsoft holds a stake and a board seat
Microsoft (MSFT) invested $1.5 billion in G42 in April 2024 for a minority stake and a seat on the board. Silver Lake reportedly invested about $800 million in 2021, and co-chief executive Egon Durban joined the board at the time. Both companies described the terms as private. Selling control to an American buyer would rearrange the ownership around both positions.
G42 sits at the center of the 5 GW UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi. The site is being developed by Khazna Data Centres with OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia (NVDA) and others. Stargate UAE, the OpenAI-anchored cluster on that campus, accounts for 1 GW of the total. OpenAI said the first 200 MW would go live in 2026, and later reporting put that phase in the third quarter.
Not all of the silicon is Nvidia's. G42 was authorized to buy the equivalent of up to 35,000 of Nvidia's GB300 Blackwell chips, and the company has said deliveries will also include chips and systems from AMD (AMD) and Cerebras Systems. Access to American chips runs the other way for some buyers. In August we covered a draft US rule aimed at stopping Chinese AI firms from reaching those chips remotely through data centers abroad.
What would actually make G42 a US company is not spelled out. The rule tells the two UAE firms to "become U.S. companies," and uses a different phrase for the separate lane, which covers "U.S.-headquartered AI companies" and their subsidiaries. Neither term is defined in the text. Selling a majority stake to an American buyer and incorporating a new American entity are different outcomes, and the rule does not say whether both would qualify.
A G42 representative told Bloomberg the company is focused on executing its long-term growth strategy and does not comment on confidential discussions or potential transactions. Bloomberg reported that no decision has been reached and that the structures under discussion could still change. The BIS deadline is April 6, 2027.
