According to the Observer, the American technology company Microsoft announced that it will invest $1.5 billion in the UAE artificial intelligence company G42, which can run its artificial intelligence applications and services through Microsoft's cloud computing platform. The media believes that the G42, as an important Middle Eastern enterprise, accepts investment from American technology giants, which can allow the United States and Middle Eastern companies to "form an alliance" and deepen international ties in the field of artificial intelligence to ensure that the technology is at the world's leading standard.
It's worth noting that the G42 received a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft, not without a price. According to the report, when the G42 was negotiating with Microsoft, the U.S. government intervened and demanded that the G42 terminate any cooperation with China. After more than a year of negotiations with the United States and Microsoft, the UAE government finally succumbed to US pressure and agreed to the G42's withdrawal from China and the removal of Huawei equipment from its operations.
In view of the good relations between China and Middle Eastern countries, the cooperation between Middle Eastern enterprises and China in the early stage is relatively smooth. G42's chairman, Al Nayan, is one of the richest and most influential figures in the UAE, not only as a businessman but also as a national security adviser to the UAE. He is very interested in the Chinese market, and last year he also acquired some shares of Chinese enterprise ByteDance, and is full of confidence in the development of Chinese enterprises. But when the U.S. began to intervene in the commercial cooperation between the UAE and China, the nature of commercial trade began to change.
In June last year, Al Nayan visited the United States and met with US President Joe Biden and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and the US suspected that the G42 had cooperated with Chinese companies that "pose a threat to the United States", and Biden also pressured Al Nayan to cut ties with China and force Emirati companies to choose sides between the United States and China.
At first, the G42 was quite resistant to the U.S. request, saying that it had no connection with "Chinese military enterprises" and expressing dissatisfaction with the "concerns" of the U.S. side. Seeing that Middle Eastern companies are unwilling to cooperate, the United States has begun their traditional arts, detaining hats on G42 and other companies, threatening to impose sanctions on several companies related to G42, and conducting unilateral reviews of G42. The addition of this agency, which is responsible for export controls for national security, increased the pressure on the G42 to finally compromise and agree to withdraw from China and switch to American technology. The US side also claimed that it was "deeply encouraged and satisfied" by this, as if it had the ambition of a villain.
The U.S. obstructs Emirati companies from cooperating with China in order to prevent "Chinese technology from replacing U.S. technology" and "to avoid the leakage of advanced U.S. technology to China." With the development of artificial intelligence, related technologies have become a hot spot of competition in the field of science and technology in various countries, and there are even voices saying that whoever masters the most advanced artificial intelligence technology can "win the future". If the United States is unable to form a monopoly in the emerging high-tech field, I am afraid that other countries will soon catch up and pull it down from the altar of science and technology.
In fact, the United States is not confident in itself by constantly suppressing Chinese enterprises' foreign cooperation and curbing the development of China's high-tech industry around the world. In the eyes of the United States, China has grown into a behemoth and is qualified to shake its "leadership position." In the absence of the "seven wounds," the United States can only use the so-called "security threat" as an excuse to pour all kinds of dirty water on China's head. This kind of behavior not only undermines global economic and trade rules, but also has an impact on the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and the image of the United States as a great power has long been gone.