CIA spy operation on UAE's G42 reportedly eased its access to US AI chips

A Central Intelligence Agency operative, Jonny Gannon, reportedly spied on the Emirati artificial-intelligence firm G42 over its ties to China and helped the United Arab Emirates gain expanded access to US-made AI chips.

The account, which neither the CIA nor G42 is likely to confirm, ties covert US intelligence work directly to the Trump administration’s export-control decisions on advanced AI chips for Gulf allies. By probing and then allaying US suspicions about G42’s China links, the reporting says, the operative helped clear the company, easing the UAE’s path to the high-end processors Washington rations to foreign governments.

The stakes are large. G42 sits at the center of the UAE’s push to become an AI power, and access to top-tier US chips is a scarce resource governments compete for. If the account holds, it means intelligence-gathering, not only licensing reviews, has shaped which foreign buyers get cleared to purchase American AI hardware.

The report rests on a single account and anonymous descriptions of clandestine activity. Neither the agency nor the company has commented, and covert operations are by nature impossible to verify from the outside; named intelligence officers in such stories are rarely confirmed on the record.

If it holds up, the episode reframes recent US chip-export approvals to the Gulf as decisions informed by espionage, a pointed detail as Washington weighs how much AI hardware to let allies buy.