A public allegation that the UAE “secretly paid” President Donald Trump $187 million is colliding with a fresh US government warning that China’s DeepSeek trained an upcoming AI model on Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell chips despite export ban.
A Wall Street Journal investigation described a transaction tied to a Trump-linked crypto venture in which documents showed $187 million of an upfront payment was directed to Trump family entities, and Senate Democrats asked Treasury to address whether the deal raised national-security concerns and whether CFIUS reviewed it.
Sen. Chris Murphy said the UAE payment was “money in his pocket personally” and claimed Trump then “overrode decades of national security objections” to selling Nvidia chips to the UAE.
Reuters reported that a senior Trump administration official said DeepSeek trained a new model on Nvidia Blackwell chips, which are barred from shipment to China under US export controls overseen by the Commerce Department.
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The official said the US believes DeepSeek will try to remove technical indicators that could reveal use of American chips, and the Blackwells are likely clustered at a data center in Inner Mongolia.
Inside Washington, White House AI czar David Sacks and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have argued that allowing some advanced exports to China can discourage domestic rivals like Huawei from accelerating catch-up efforts, while China hawks argue chips can be diverted to military uses and erode US AI advantage.
On policy chronology, Reuters reported Trump opened the door in August to Nvidia selling a scaled-down Blackwell in China, then later reversed course, and his decision in December to allow Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s second-most advanced chips, the H200, drew sharp criticism, with shipments stalled amid guardrails.
Separately, US approval pathways for Gulf-linked compute have been active. Microsoft reportedly planned to ship more than 60,000 Nvidia AI chips to the UAE under a Commerce Department-approved deal with safeguards, illustrating that large-scale UAE access can proceed under US licensing rules.
Information for this story was found via Reuters and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
