“U.S.-China Showdown Over Egypt Data Center”... Could Xi Jinping’s Visit Boost Huawei’s Chances of Winning the Contract?

[Financial News] Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Egypt for the first time in about 10 years, explicitly mentioned cooperation between the two countries on data centers and semiconductors in a joint statement with the Egyptian president. The statement could strengthen Huawei’s bid to win a contract to build a data center in Egypt.
Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said on its website on the 2nd (local time) that Xi Jinping, who was on a state visit to Egypt from the 1st to the 2nd of the month, issued a joint statement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the 2nd.
Xi Jinping and el-Sisi referred to technological cooperation between the two countries in the 21-point “Joint Statement on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between China and Egypt.” The two leaders stated, “The two countries agree to actively explore localization cooperation in areas such as electric vehicles, shipbuilding, renewable energy sources including solar and wind power, and seawater desalination, while encouraging Chinese companies to leverage Egypt’s competitive advantages.” They added, “The two countries agree to expand cooperation in advanced technology areas, including cloud computing, data centers, the digital economy, semiconductors, cybersecurity, space applications, and remote sensing, as well as in critical mineral supply chains, agriculture, and automobile manufacturing.”
Foreign media outlets noted that the statement came as Huawei, a Chinese IT company, seeks to enter Egypt’s data center market. U.S. media reported on the 26th of last month that Huawei had submitted a bid proposal to the Egyptian government to build an artificial intelligence (AI) data center for public-sector uses, including military and security operations. In its proposal, Huawei said it would export 1,408 of its top-tier Ascend 950 series semiconductors to Egypt for cloud-based AI training and supply more than 600 additional semiconductors to run AI models after training.
Foreign media outlets analyzed that, if Huawei wins the bid, it would mark its first advance in challenging the United States’ dominance of global AI infrastructure. They also predicted that Huawei’s Ascend accelerators could achieve their first successful export after more than a year of attempts.
Western media reported that the United States had moved to block Huawei. According to people familiar with the matter, the Trump administration began assembling a U.S. consortium to prevent Huawei from winning the contract. It was also reported to have contacted U.S. AI and semiconductor companies, including NVIDIA, AMD, and Microsoft.
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