California Jury Awards $40 Million in Johnson & Johnson Talc Cancer Lawsuit 
Moore Threads Stock Slides After Risk Warning Despite 600% Surge Since IPO 
Judge Orders Return of Seized Evidence in Comey-Related Case, DOJ May Seek New Warrant 
FDA Says No Black Box Warning Planned for COVID-19 Vaccines Despite Safety Debate 
Syria Arrests Five Suspects After Deadly Attack on U.S. and Syrian Troops in Palmyra 
European Leaders Tie Ukraine Territorial Decisions to Strong Security Guarantees 
SpaceX Insider Share Sale Values Company Near $800 Billion Amid IPO Speculation 
Trump’s Rob Reiner Remarks Spark Bipartisan Outrage After Tragic Deaths 
Trump Sues BBC for Defamation Over Edited Capitol Riot Speech Clip 
Nvidia Weighs Expanding H200 AI Chip Production as China Demand Surges 
Fortescue Expands Copper Portfolio With Full Takeover of Alta Copper 
Trello Outage Disrupts Users as Access Issues Hit Atlassian’s Work Management Platform 
Korea Zinc Plans $6.78 Billion U.S. Smelter Investment With Government Partnership 
Strategy Retains Nasdaq 100 Spot Amid Growing Scrutiny of Bitcoin Treasury Model 
Ukraine Claims First-Ever Underwater Drone Strike on Russian Missile Submarine 
Coca-Cola’s Costa Coffee Sale Faces Uncertainty as Talks With TDR Capital Hit Snag 
SUPERFORTUNE Launches AI-Powered Mobile App, Expanding Beyond Web3 Into $392 Billion Metaphysics Market 
The U.S. government is nearing a decision on whether to approve Nvidia chip sales to Saudi Arabia, a deal that could accelerate AI projects in the region while impacting the kingdom’s relationship with China, which is under increased scrutiny.
US Evaluating Nvidia Chip Sales to Saudi Arabia
As reported by Semafor on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the situation (as cited by Reuters), the U.S. government is contemplating authorizing Nvidia to sell cutting-edge chips to Saudi Arabia.
This would enable the kingdom to train and operate its most advanced artificial intelligence models.
According to the report, sales of the chips were a major, albeit unofficial, subject at GAIN, the global AI summit in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia Aims to Meet US Security Standards
Several summit attendees, including employees of the Saudi Data and AI Authority, informed Semafor that the kingdom is striving to meet U.S. security standards in order to speed up the purchase of the chips.
The sale of artificial intelligence chips to the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries is now subject to a licencing requirement, as part of the new restrictions put in place last year by the Biden administration in an effort to limit China's access to these chips.
According to Yahoo Finance, the Saudi government is reportedly anticipating the shipping of Nvidia H200s, the company's most sophisticated CPUs. One of the first multimodal platforms to employ the H200 was OpenAI's GPT-4o, which could have natural-sounding conversations and respond to both text and images.
Saudi Arabia Cuts Ties with Chinese Firms but Leaves Door Open
Sources familiar with Saudi policy told the media that the kingdom has taken measures to reduce its ties to Chinese companies but has left the door open to China in the event that the US cuts off Saudi Arabia's access to cutting-edge U.S. semiconductors.
A representative from Nvidia chose not to address the story.
"Export control decisions regarding licenses, entity listings and any future policy actions are the subject of a rigorous interagency process including the Departments of Commerce, State, Defense and Energy," the US Department of Commerce stated, declining to comment on specifics.
