TL;DR

Trump eases U.S. AI chip export rules; Nvidia, AMD, AWS land major Saudi deals; U.S. eyes 10-year state AI regulation ban.

Highlights

• Trump administration rescinds Biden-era AI chip export rule, moving to country-by-country negotiations; clarifies global ban on Huawei Ascend AI chips 1.
• Nvidia , AMD , Amazon, and Qualcomm secure major AI infrastructure deals with Saudi Arabia’s Humain, including Nvidia’s 18,000 Blackwell chips and AMD’s $10B partnership 2.
• AWS and Humain announce $5B+ investment to establish a Saudi “AI Zone”; Amazon also commits $5.3B for a new AWS region 6.
• Super Micro Computer stock surges after $20B AI data center partnership with Saudi DataVolt, focusing on U.S. supply chains and green energy 7.
• House GOP proposes a 10-year federal ban on state/local AI regulations, aiming to prevent a regulatory patchwork; faces opposition from Democrats and advocacy groups 3.
• Meta faces legal threats from NOYB over plans to use European user data for AI training; GDPR compliance questioned 4.
• Colorado’s AI Act takes effect Feb 2026, requiring disclosures and anti-bias measures for high-risk AI systems; other states advance chatbot notification laws 13.
• OpenAI, backed by Microsoft , considers Stargate data center in UAE with SoftBank, dependent on U.S. chip export policy 5.
• Databricks acquires open-source Neon for $1B to enhance serverless Postgres and AI agent support 9.
• AMD announces $6B share buyback (total $10B) after Saudi AI deal; stock rises 5% 8.
• Perplexity partners with PayPal for in-chat shopping, finalizes $500M raise at $14B valuation 12.
• Sakana AI open-sources Continuous Thought Machines, a new reasoning architecture, achieving 72.47% ImageNet accuracy 14.
• Las Vegas-based TensorWave raises $100M Series A to expand AMD-powered AI infrastructure 11.
• Harvey, backed by OpenAI, integrates Anthropic and Google models for multi-model legal AI platform 15.
• Google tests “AI Mode” on Search homepage amid generative AI competition; Gemini reaches 35M daily users 10.

Commentary

U.S. AI export policy is in flux, with the Trump administration rescinding broad chip export restrictions in favor of direct negotiations 1. This shift is already facilitating large-scale deals in the Middle East, notably with Saudi Arabia’s Humain, which has secured significant partnerships with Nvidia , AMD , AWS, and others 26. The region is rapidly becoming a focal point for AI infrastructure buildout, with U.S. firms leveraging relaxed export controls to supply advanced chips and cloud services, and local capital fueling data center expansion. Super Micro Computer ’s $20B partnership with Saudi DataVolt 7 and AWS’s $5B+ Saudi investment 6 underscore the scale of this trend, while OpenAI’s potential UAE data center signals further U.S. AI expansion in the Gulf, contingent on future export guidance 5.

On the regulatory front, the proposed 10-year federal moratorium on state and local AI regulations could streamline compliance for enterprises but would override state-led efforts like Colorado’s AI Act, which mandates transparency and anti-bias measures for high-risk AI systems 313. The resulting federal-state tension is likely to shape the U.S. regulatory landscape in the near term. Meanwhile, Meta’s plan to use European user data for AI training is facing immediate legal threats under GDPR, highlighting the ongoing challenge of navigating global privacy regimes 4.

AI infrastructure and application layers continue to see significant investment and product development. Databricks’ $1B acquisition of Neon enhances its serverless data capabilities 9, while TensorWave’s $100M raise will expand AMD-powered AI compute 11. AMD ’s $6B buyback and stock gains reflect investor confidence following its Saudi deals 8. On the application side, Perplexity’s PayPal partnership and $500M funding round point to rapid growth in AI-native commerce 12, and Harvey’s multi-model legal AI platform reflects a trend toward model-agnostic enterprise solutions 15. Google ’s testing of “AI Mode” on Search and Sakana AI’s open-sourcing of a novel reasoning architecture indicate continued pressure to innovate at both the research and consumer product levels 1014.

AI professionals should monitor further U.S. export policy developments, the execution of Saudi-backed infrastructure projects, evolving U.S. regulatory dynamics, and legal action in Europe. The pace of funding, M&A, and product launches remains high, with infrastructure, compliance, and multi-model capabilities as key themes.