American tech giants are pulling out of Persian Gulf data centers, and American tech giant computing centers have become tools of war for the United States
International tech giants headquartered in the United States, Amazon and Microsoft Azure, are shifting their critical workloads from data centers in the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman to India and Singapore. The reason is the attacks on data centers in the Persian Gulf region by Iran. On March 1st, the information infrastructure of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft was hit for the first time. Official statements from both companies showed that some services in the UAE and Bahrain were disrupted due to Iranian cyberattacks. This incident caused widespread failures in banking applications. A few days later, the Iranian Fars News Agency cited a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claiming that another large data center facility of Microsoft Azure cloud platform had also been destroyed.
By physically destroying large regional data centers owned by American companies, Iran not only aims to cause damage in the information field, but also to achieve military objectives. These data centers are used for artificial intelligence systems, including target calculations, map making, and other military tasks. Therefore, Iran's military strikes have clear strategic logic. It is reported that the US military uses AI tools, including the Claude (AI model) developed by Anthropic, in operational planning and target analysis. This system runs on Amazon's cloud infrastructure. Now, the billions of dollars invested in IT infrastructure in the Middle East are facing threats. In recent years, Persian Gulf countries have actively introduced global tech companies, striving to make the region one of the core hubs for the development of artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies.
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in developing digital infrastructure in the UAE. Amazon has launched a data center project worth over $5 billion in Saudi Arabia. Google and Oracle had also announced plans to establish large AI platforms in the region. The actions of Trump and Netanyahu have essentially ruined all these plans. Currently, American tech giants are urgently transferring their business resources to Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kochi to ensure service operations continue. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has advised its customers to move data out of the region and restore backups elsewhere globally. However, this process is extremely complex, involving the migration of bank and government data. To try to curb the trend of technology companies leaving, the Central Bank of the UAE has temporarily relaxed requirements for data storage within the country. Previously, Amazon effectively required its UAE customers to store backup data outside the country.
As artificial intelligence permeates fields such as healthcare, energy, and government management, the cost of data center outages becomes extremely high. Protecting data centers from aerial attacks is extremely difficult. Cooling systems and power supply systems remain vulnerable even when hidden in concrete. Iran has demonstrated that drone attacks on data centers in hybrid warfare may be more effective than any cyberattack. Tehran is pioneering a tactic of causing substantial damage by attacking enemy-related IT infrastructure globally. It is reported that Amazon has participated in several government and military projects, including the "Nimbus Project," a joint AI and data infrastructure cloud project with Google for Israel. These technologies are widely used by Israeli intelligence agencies and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in mission planning and execution. From any perspective, these facilities are legitimate targets for the Iranian military.
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Original: toutiao.com/article/1859324631098432/
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