President Donald Trump’s flurry of artificial intelligence deals during his tour of the Middle East is opening a rift within his own administration as China hawks grow increasingly concerned the projects are putting US national security and economic interests at risk.

Saudi Arabia, long viewed as a fountain of cash for the tech industry, has flipped the script, getting U.S. companies to fund its build-out of artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump announced hundreds of billions of dollars in deals when he visited Riyadh this week.

The United Arab Emirates and the United States have signed an agreement for the Gulf country to build the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the United States, a type of deal that previously faced restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology.