Iranian Conflict Spreads to AI Infrastructure, Data Centers Become Vulnerable Targets

Central Message

(CNA, Washington, 3rd – International News) CNN reported that Iran’s strategy of countering military superiority with economic strikes has revealed the vulnerability of one of the world’s most critical strategic assets: artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

Iran has previously attacked oil refineries, oil export facilities, and tourist sites in neighboring countries, severely damaging the economies of Gulf states and their international partners. Now, data centers that support AI computing and are vital to the future of the global economy are increasingly becoming targets.

Iran recently bombed multiple data centers in neighboring countries, and the U.S. responded by attacking one data center inside Iran.

For decades, data centers have been targets of cyberattacks, but physical military attacks are a new phenomenon emerging in 2026. This poses a major challenge for governments that view AI as central to national security and economic growth, as well as for the tech industry, which has heavily invested in global data center construction in recent years.

● Opening a New Front

Iran and the U.S. have launched attacks on at least five data centers in the Persian Gulf region, including Iran’s second missile strike last month on Amazon’s data center in Bahrain.

From the outset of the conflict, Iran has declared data centers as legitimate military targets. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a list of 29 regional tech facilities for attack, including sites operated by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palantir.

After attacking Amazon’s data center on July 21, the Iranian government posted on Telegram that the renewed strike was due to Amazon providing cloud services for U.S. military intelligence operations. Amazon currently holds multiple U.S. government contracts, including the $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program; Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are also partners in this initiative.

Data centers in the Gulf region are not only critical for U.S. military and AI industries but also central to the region’s ambition to become the world’s third major AI hub after the U.S. and China.

Saudi Arabia has allocated a significant portion of its roughly $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund to AI investments. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year signed a major agreement with the Trump administration to jointly build the “Stargate” data center, a $500 billion project—the largest of its kind outside the U.S. OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, and Cisco are set to participate.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have all pledged to advance over $2 trillion in AI-related investments with the U.S., on the condition of reducing reliance on similar Chinese technologies.

Helima Croft, Global Strategist at RBC Capital Markets, noted that this deepens the alliance between Gulf states and the U.S., but also exposes their AI assets to Iranian attacks.

● New Risks to an Old Problem

The AI boom has driven rapid expansion of data centers, making them highly visible in recent years. However, data centers have existed for decades and have long been targets in warfare. What’s unprecedented is the direct destruction of data centers using missiles or drones.

Two reasons explain this shift: First, AI has become a pillar of economic development for the U.S. and Gulf nations, allowing Iran to inflict significant economic damage using relatively low-cost weapons like drones. Second, data centers store both military and commercial information, enabling Iran to justify them as legitimate military targets.

Andrew Reddie, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said, “If you look at Amazon’s data center from Iran’s perspective, it’s almost like it’s painted with American flags.”

● Future Challenges

Philip Wray, Head of Property Insurance at MSIG USA, pointed out that data centers are essentially large warehouses filled with extremely expensive equipment, with few effective ways to defend against bombs or drone attacks.

Data centers were originally equipped with redundant systems to handle natural disasters or cable outages, but now they must also account for military threats. When a data center goes offline, its data and computing capacity can usually be rerouted to other centers.

Moreover, insurance costs for data centers are skyrocketing, and in some cases, coverage may become unattainable.

Joe Macejak, U.S. Digital Infrastructure Lead for Property Insurance at Marsh, said, “Some clients, seeing recent events, are reconsidering whether to proceed with related plans, and some insurers are unwilling to take on certain risks.”

As demand for data centers surges, costs for chips, construction materials, labor, and other related factors continue to rise, increasing the risks that enterprises must bear. (Translation: Shih Shih) 1150804