> MBZUAI “is equipped with top-tier GPU facilities, including over 800 NVIDIA GPUs, 400 A100 GPUs, and 400 V100 GPUs.”
That, interestingly, is no longer top tier. Current “gold-standard” clusters use Hopper-class H100s (or H20s?) and are pivoting to Blackwell-class GB200s
The source is from a year ago; times have changed, but Volta was OLD even in 2024 and is now falling out of official support
I assume by Nvidia GPUs they meant H100s (though weird since A100s also Nvidia obv). But even then agree this is not a competitive chip resources vs top US universities: though nominally US universities might have less chips but attending a top US university means you have many opportunities to intern / part-time at big techs / government research labs which have orders of magnitude more chips. This is only competitive vs Chinese universities or tier 2 US universities, meaning you are only attracting US-educated Chinese talents who are not competitive in the US in the first place.
> Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), the only AI institution in the world where Chinese researchers dominate the academic roster.
typo surely, right? Or do all AI institutions in China have a dominance of non-chinese researchers?
Great insights on the UAE-China AI collaboration! The details about MBZUAI's research capabilities and faculty composition are particularly interesting. This shows how AI development is truly becoming a global endeavor.
But the UAE isn’t just hedging in AI — it’s building a parallel financial corridor with China at the exact same time. mBridge is the blockchain based cross-border CBDC network that lets Abu Dhabi settle directly in RMB. It has already moved RMB 100M+ between the UAE and China and is on track to clear >RMB 200B by 2025.
The “G42 → Lunate divestment = cosmetic” thesis aged perfectly in the last 30 days: Lunate’s Alibaba stake quietly climbed to 30.48 % while MGX was cutting $7 B Stargate checks to OpenAI/Oracle.
UAE is hedging on both sides: American chips + Chinese brains + non-Western rails.
> MBZUAI “is equipped with top-tier GPU facilities, including over 800 NVIDIA GPUs, 400 A100 GPUs, and 400 V100 GPUs.”
That, interestingly, is no longer top tier. Current “gold-standard” clusters use Hopper-class H100s (or H20s?) and are pivoting to Blackwell-class GB200s
The source is from a year ago; times have changed, but Volta was OLD even in 2024 and is now falling out of official support
I assume by Nvidia GPUs they meant H100s (though weird since A100s also Nvidia obv). But even then agree this is not a competitive chip resources vs top US universities: though nominally US universities might have less chips but attending a top US university means you have many opportunities to intern / part-time at big techs / government research labs which have orders of magnitude more chips. This is only competitive vs Chinese universities or tier 2 US universities, meaning you are only attracting US-educated Chinese talents who are not competitive in the US in the first place.
> Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), the only AI institution in the world where Chinese researchers dominate the academic roster.
typo surely, right? Or do all AI institutions in China have a dominance of non-chinese researchers?
Great insights on the UAE-China AI collaboration! The details about MBZUAI's research capabilities and faculty composition are particularly interesting. This shows how AI development is truly becoming a global endeavor.
Why This Matters for the UAE’s AI Hedge? It creates a strategic loop:
1 - Chips flow US → UAE, via partnerships with US labs + compliance-driven distancing from China
2 - Talent flows China → UAE, MBZUAI + zero scrutiny + GPU capacity
3 - Capital + settlement flow China ↔ UAE, mBridge corridor, RMB settlement, CIPS connectivity
4 - Sovereignty increases for both, UAE gets operational autonomy in AI + finance
Plus China extends its non-USD payment reach into the Gulf
But the UAE isn’t just hedging in AI — it’s building a parallel financial corridor with China at the exact same time. mBridge is the blockchain based cross-border CBDC network that lets Abu Dhabi settle directly in RMB. It has already moved RMB 100M+ between the UAE and China and is on track to clear >RMB 200B by 2025.
Great write-up on Abu Dhabi’s two-track AI game.
The “G42 → Lunate divestment = cosmetic” thesis aged perfectly in the last 30 days: Lunate’s Alibaba stake quietly climbed to 30.48 % while MGX was cutting $7 B Stargate checks to OpenAI/Oracle.
UAE is hedging on both sides: American chips + Chinese brains + non-Western rails.
Why are all the student chinese?? Don't they have any UAE citizens or Middle Easterners in the program??