Data centers become military targets in Iran war

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Banking, payments, business and consumer services in the UAE experienced disruptions earlier this week as AWS (Amazon Web Services) The country’s data centers were attacked with Iranian drones on Sunday.

Many of the applications have since come back online after companies rushed to migrate servers, but the downtime of services that many use daily highlights how digital infrastructure has become a strategic goal.

After the United States and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran last weekend, Tehran’s wave of retaliatory attacks across the Middle East targeted military bases, oil and gas production facilities and data centers.

There are more than 200 of these across the Middle East, by some estimates, and cheap power and land have attracted American hyperscalers to pour resources into building capacity in the region in recent years.

“Iran and its proxies have attacked oil fields in the past, but their attacks this week on data centers in the United Arab Emirates show that they are now considered critical infrastructure,” Patrick J. Murphy, executive director of the geopolitical unit at advisory firm Hilco Global, told me.

On Monday, AWS said two of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates had been directly hit by drones and one in Bahrain was also damaged by a nearby strike.

The latter was attacked by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over the company’s support for the US military, Iranian state media said on Wednesday.

Companies using AWS servers in the United Arab Emirates were advised to migrate to alternative regions as they scramble to limit outages. AWS was still reporting that services in the country were “disrupted” as of Friday morning.

In recent years, governments have increasingly recognized the strategic importance of data centers. The United States recognizes them as part of its 16 critical infrastructure sectors; the United Kingdom designated them as critical national infrastructure in 2024; and the EU also grants them special status. Many other nations in Europe and elsewhere also classify data centers as critical.

But the rise of drone warfare in recent years has brought new scrutiny to the security of the infrastructure that powers digital life around the world.

Iran, which is targeting data centers in the Middle East, could prompt more governments to “incorporate them into national security planning frameworks along with energy facilities, telecommunications networks, water treatment plants and transportation hubs,” Hilco Global’s Murphy said.

AWS, microsoft and Google declined to comment on security arrangements at data center sites in the region as a result of the conflict.

Many digital services have been restored in recent days, but the Iranian drone strikes could focus attention on replication and backup options across multiple regions, Scott Tindall, a partner in the energy and infrastructure team at law firm Hogan Lovells, told me.

While “sophisticated data center operators” already conduct detailed geopolitical risk assessments, he said, they will likely need to be “reviewed in light of recent events.”

The US government has officially declared Anthropic a supply chain risk. CEO Darío Amodei confirmed this on Thursday and stated that the company “has no choice” but to challenge the appointment in court.

Technology companies with operations in the Middle East They have been quick to respond as fighting spread across the region.

Xiaomi plans to launch a new smartphone processor chip every year. company president Lu Weibing told CNBC, underscoring its ambition to expand into more sophisticated technology areas.

How Iran’s Shahed drone, Dubbed the “poor man’s cruise missile” by some analysts, it is shaping Tehran’s retaliation.

The quote: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Monday that the company “should not have rushed” its recent deal with the US Department of Defense, adding that it “seemed opportunistic and careless.”

The big picture: On Friday, OpenAI announced that it had reached a new agreement with the Department of Defense.

The move came just hours after the dispute between Anthropic and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over safeguards for their Clause AI systems ended with President Donald Trump ordering US government agencies to “immediately cease” using the company’s technology.

Days later, Altman said the company would amend OpenAI’s contract with the department to include new language about its principles on issues such as surveillance.