Iran threatens US-linked AI data centers with missile strikes as regional conflict widens
Iran warns of strikes on data centers
Iran has threatened further attacks on data centers across the Middle East, escalating its confrontation with the United States amid an expanding regional conflict. In a video released late last week and circulated widely on Sunday, Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari said Iran would retaliate against U.S. energy and tech infrastructure in the region if Washington followed through on threats to strike Iranian civilian sites.
The warning came alongside a graphic that singled out the Stargate data center in the United Arab Emirates. The image zoomed in on the site with the message: “nothing stays hidden to our sight, though hidden by Google.”
Stargate is a $500 billion joint venture involving OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, announced in January 2025 to build AI data centers. The project initially faced reported funding issues and cost pressures tied to tariffs, and later sought to expand internationally.
The latest threat followed comments from U.S. President Trump, who said he would strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants and water desalination plants, by the end of Tuesday if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The shipping channel has been a major pressure point in the war, which began in February and has disrupted global supply chains.
Data centers already under fire
The region’s technology infrastructure has already been hit. Iranian missiles struck Amazon Web Services data centers in Bahrain and an Oracle data center in Dubai, according to the report. Iran also named Nvidia and Apple in threats last week.
The warning underscores how the conflict is increasingly reaching into the digital backbone of the Middle East, with cloud and AI infrastructure now appearing alongside energy and shipping as potential targets in the standoff.
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