Earlier than daybreak on March 1, 2026, Iranian Shahed drones struck two Amazon Net Companies information facilities within the United Arab Emirates. A 3rd business information heart in Bahrain was hit, although it’s much less clear whether or not it was intentionally focused. Iran has additionally indicated that it considers business information facilities to be targets.
That is the primary time {that a} nation has intentionally focused business information facilities throughout wartime. Information facilities have been targets of espionage and cyberattacks up to now, notably when Ukrainian hackers destroyed information saved in a Russian military-affiliated information heart in 2024. This, nonetheless, was a bodily assault. Drones broken buildings.
Advances in synthetic intelligence have elevated the significance of information facilities. The U.S. navy, specifically, has made nice use of AI methods for resolution help in its assaults on Iran and Venezuela. Given how vital information facilities are, Iranian forces may very well be focusing on the infrastructure Iran’s leaders consider is supporting strikes on Iran.
It’s not altogether clear that these specific information facilities have been utilized by the U.S. navy. As an alternative, the assaults might have been a part of a broader effort to punish the United Arab Emirates for its ties with the U.S.
In my expertise as a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech finding out how expertise drives adjustments in worldwide safety, I don’t assume the assaults sign any important change within the nature of warfare. However they’re forcing nations to acknowledge that information facilities are targets of struggle – even when they don’t instantly help navy operations.
Information facilities and the cloud
The US navy is more and more incorporating superior AI capabilities into its resolution help methods. From the operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to supporting navy strikes towards Iran, the U.S. has been utilizing AI, particularly Anthropic’s Claude, for intelligence evaluation and operational help.
AI is unlocking quicker methods to hold out operations in struggle, however the AI instruments the navy typically makes use of usually are not situated on a airplane or ship. When a service member makes use of Claude, the computing infrastructure that powers the mannequin and its evaluation normally goes to a safe Amazon Net Companies cloud that hosts secret authorities information and software program instruments.
Business information facilities are the place the cloud lives. The subsequent time you pull up Netflix and watch your favourite exhibits, you might be doubtless streaming the programming from a knowledge heart, presumably AWS. When AWS information facilities go down, outages have an effect on all types of leisure, information and authorities features.
With AI as a driver of financial development, information facilities are key types of infrastructure. They make sure that AI can proceed to run, in addition to a lot of the underlying web that governments and trade depend on. When Iran attacked the UAE’s information facilities, it induced widespread disruption to the native banking system.
Business information facilities allow a lot of the expertise that runs the fashionable world, together with AI methods. Disrupting them is essential to disrupting the navy and society of a rustic. On condition that AWS offers and operates lots of the business information facilities the place the cloud lives, it’s doubtless that its information facilities will proceed to be focused in battle.
Going after US allies
Researchers at Simply Safety famous on March 12, 2026, that america requires cloud-computing service suppliers to retailer authorities and navy information throughout the U.S. or on Division of Protection bases: “Transferring such information to Amazon information facilities within the Gulf area would require particular authorization; we’re unaware if that has been granted.”
Nonetheless, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed the strikes have been towards information facilities supporting “the enemy’s” navy and intelligence actions. And 10 days after the preliminary assault on the information facilities, an Iranian information company claimed that main tech firm information facilities and different bodily property within the area have been thought of “enemy expertise infrastructure.”
As an alternative of navy causes, Iran might properly have focused the UAE to rattle the worldwide financial system and garner consideration. Given the prominence of the Gulf as a serious recipient of U.S. technological funding, the assault might also have been a symbolic one aimed on the coronary heart of U.S.-Gulf cooperation. AI infrastructure resembling business information facilities is a rising a part of U.S. management within the area, and this struggle may jeopardize the way forward for AI infrastructure within the Gulf.
Giuseppe CACACE/AFP through Getty Pictures
Rising significance, straightforward targets
Although information facilities are more and more vital for nationwide safety, the financial system and society at giant, it may be tempting to counsel these strikes characterize a basic shift within the nature of struggle. Whereas that could be a chance, you will need to do not forget that Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at targets within the UAE. Although the overwhelming majority have been intercepted, the 2 that struck information facilities are a small portion of those that obtained by way of to civilian targets in UAE territory, together with strikes on airports and motels.
The relative vulnerability of business information facilities – they’re giant, comparatively fragile and lack devoted air defenses – means that those within the UAE might have been targets of alternative or comfort. In different phrases, they have been hit as a result of they may very well be hit.
Nonetheless, it appears doubtless that as the usage of AI instruments and different cloud-based assets continues to develop in significance for international locations around the globe, business information facilities will probably be targets in future conflicts.
