*

AI deal is major win for Abu Dhabi

*

Trump wraps up Gulf tour focused on business deals

*

UAE commits to greater investments in US energy sector

(Adds Trump comments, Syria business deal)

By Nayera Abdallah, Yousef Saba and Federico Maccioni

DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on

Friday on his last stop on a Gulf tour focused on business deals

that the United Arab Emirates and the United States had agreed a

path for the Gulf country to buy advanced AI semiconductors from

U.S. companies, a major win for Abu Dhabi's efforts to become a

global AI hub.

Trump also wrapped up his Gulf tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar

and the UAE with a pledge by oil power Abu Dhabi - the UAE's

capital and richest emirate - to hike the value of its energy

investments in the U.S. to $440 billion in the next decade.

Trump departed for Washington after whirlwind meetings with

leaders in the Gulf aimed at securing financial commitments from

the wealthy energy producers that could boost the U.S. economy

and create jobs.

In March, when senior UAE officials met Trump, the UAE had

committed to a 10-year, $1.4 trillion investment framework in

the U.S. in sectors including energy, AI and manufacturing to

deepen reciprocal ties.

"We're making great progress for the $1.4 (trillion) that

UAE has announced it intends to spend in the United States,"

Trump said in Abu Dhabi, at the end of the four-day tour that

has concentrated, at least publicly, on investment, not security

crises in the Middle East, including Israel's war in Gaza.

His public diplomacy was limited to a meeting with Syria's

new interim leader after deciding to remove sanctions on Syria

at the behest of Saudi Arabia, in a major shift in U.S. policy.

The AI deal is a boost for the UAE, which has been trying to

balance its relations with its longtime ally the U.S. and its

largest trading partner China.

It reflects the Trump administration's confidence that the

chips can be managed securely, in part by requiring data centres

be managed by U.S. companies.

"Yesterday the two countries also agreed to create a path

for UAE to buy some of the world's most advanced AI

semiconductors from American companies, a very big contract,"

Trump said.

"This will generate billions and billions of dollars in

business and accelerate the UAE's plans to become a really major

player in artificial intelligence," he added.

New deals announced with UAE, totalling over $200 billion,

included a $14.5 billion commitment from Etihad Airways to

invest in 28 American-made Boeing aircraft.

ENERGY INVESTMENTS

The UAE energy investment commitment was announced during a

presentation by Sultan Al Jaber, Abu Dhabi state energy giant

ADNOC's chief executive, one of a number of huge financial

pledges Trump has drawn from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The enterprise value of UAE investments in the U.S. energy

sector will be boosted to $440 billion by 2035 from $70 billion

now, Al Jaber told Trump, adding U.S. energy firms will also

invest in the UAE.

"Our partners have committed new investments worth $60

billion in upstream oil and gas, as well as new and

unconventional opportunities," Jaber said in front of a slide

showing projects in the UAE under the logos of U.S. companies

ExxonMobil ( XOM ), Oxy and EOG Resources ( EOG ).

XRG, the international investment arm of ADNOC, is seeking

to make a significant investment in U.S. natural gas, Jaber, who

is also XRG's executive chairman and minister of industry and

advanced technology, has said.

SYRIA AND IRAN

The lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria cleared the way for a

deal announced on Friday between the Syrian government and

Dubai-based DP World, Syrian state news agency SANA said on

Friday. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding worth

$800 million to develop Syria's port of Tartous.

Trump said he did not consult ally Israel, Syria's longtime

foe, about the U.S. decision to recognise Syria's new

government, despite deep Israeli suspicion of Islamist President

Sharaa's administration.

"I didn't ask them about that. I thought it was the right

thing to do. I've been given a lot of credit for doing it. Look,

we want Syria to succeed," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force

One, shortly after departing Abu Dhabi.

Trump urged Sharaa to establish ties with Israel and join

the Abraham Accords, normalisation deals between Israel, the

UAE, Bahrain,and Morocco brokered by the United States during

his first term.

Trump on Friday said Iran has his administration's proposal

for a nuclear deal and knows it needs to move quickly, a day

after saying Washington and Tehran were close to a nuclear deal.

"They have a proposal. More importantly, they know they have

to move quickly or something bad-something bad's going to

happen," Trump told reporters.