Drone Attacks Cast Doubts on Gulf’s Status as an AI Superpower: Implications for Data Center Missile Defense

A significant milestone has emerged in modern warfare: the intentional targeting of a commercial data center by a nation’s military during an active conflict.

At 4:30 AM on Sunday, an Iranian Shahed 136 drone successfully hit an Amazon Web Services data center located in the United Arab Emirates. This attack ignited a catastrophic fire and caused a complete shutdown of its power supply. Moreover, efforts to extinguish the flames only resulted in additional damage.

Shortly after the initial attack, a second data center owned by the same U.S. tech giant was struck. A third center in Bahrain faced severe jeopardy when an Iranian suicide drone exploded upon making contact with the ground.

According to reports from Iranian state television, this operation was executed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with the intention “to identify the role of these centers in supporting the enemy’s military and intelligence activities.”

The technological infrastructure developed by Jeff Bezos’s company is resilient enough to handle the loss of one regional center, but a second instance—let alone a third—would undermine its vast technological network.

The coordinated drone strikes had immediate repercussions.

On Monday, millions of residents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi discovered they were suddenly unable to hail taxis, order food deliveries, or check their bank balances through mobile applications.

The military implications of these drone strikes remain unclear. However, they brought the realities of war directly into the daily lives of 11 million inhabitants of the UAE, where a striking 90% are expatriates. In light of these events, Amazon has urged its clients to secure their data outside the region.

The implications of these attacks on such a modern military target are now prompting serious considerations about the UAE’s ambitious goals, which include billions in U.S. and foreign investments aimed at harnessing what they envision as the ‘new oil’: artificial intelligence (AI).

Chris McGuire, an expert on AI and technology competition who has worked with the White House’s National Security Council during the Biden administration, notes that “the UAE is determined to be a major player in the AI sphere.” He emphasized that the government’s confidence in this technology is unparalleled, suggesting that looming security questions must be addressed expediently.

A data center functions as a facility specifically built to store, manage, and operate digital data.

The soaring demand from businesses for AI and cloud computing—characterized by a pay-as-you-go model for server, storage, and software— necessitates construction of data centers capable of processing much larger amounts of information.

Such infrastructure requires an uninterrupted supply of very low-cost electrical power.

In its quest to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels, the UAE has showcased its ample supply of cheap electricity and a significant sovereign wealth fund, ready to invest in and subsidize relevant projects.

According to Turner & Townsend’s Global Data Centre Index, the global construction costs of data centers increased by 5.5% in 2025. However, the UAE ranks 44th out of 52 nations in terms of the overall expense related to unit cost per watt.

Its geographical position renders the UAE crucial as a landing point for subsea cables, facilitating communication between Europe and Asia.

Adding a layer of complexity to this landscape are geopolitical dynamics, with the U.S. intent on preventing Gulf states from leaning on Chinese technology.

In May, during a four-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, former President Donald Trump coincided the announcement of a tremendous new AI campus—a collaboration between the UAE and the U.S.—intended for training advanced AI models.

As part of this agreement, the Trump administration relaxed restrictions on the sale of advanced chips to Gulf countries. OpenAI has claimed that this new UAE campus might one day service half the global population.

McGuire argues that recent events may serve as a turning point. “To develop substantial data centers across the Middle East, we need to take serious measures for their protection,” he insists. “Currently, we equate security measures to having guards and implementing strong cybersecurity protocols.”

“However, if we intend to invest heavily in the Middle East, this might necessitate deploying missile defense systems to protect data centers.”

Sean Gorman, CEO of Zephr.xyz, a technology firm that collaborates with the U.S. Air Force, believes that the aspirations of Gulf nations are likely on the radar of military strategists in Tehran.

He remarked, “I suspect the Iranians are adopting tactics that have proven successful in the Ukraine conflict. Asymmetric warfare aimed at critical infrastructure can create pressure on adversaries, resulting in disruptions to public safety and economic stability.”

Countries like the UAE and Bahrain have positioned themselves as global AI hubs by heavily investing in data centers and fiber infrastructure that connect them globally.

“Disrupting this infrastructure not only places their strategic positions in jeopardy but also hampers critical economic operations,” he stated, while noting that any impact on defense operations would likely be a serendipitous outcome rather than the primary goal.

Gorman acknowledged that the UAE has successfully managed regional instability in the past without escalating the issues but cautioned about various other risks beyond aerial threats.

He elaborated, “The UAE boasts a highly diversified submarine-cable landing network within the Middle East, yet the geography remains uneven. While there are numerous landing stations and cable systems, many are concentrated on the eastern coast, particularly near Fujairah, creating potential geographic chokepoints.”

“Furthermore, there are tangible risks stemming from Iranian cyber operations specifically targeting U.S.-aligned digital infrastructure in the Gulf,” Gorman warned, highlighting an imminent threat to data centers and cloud operations.

He stressed that the UAE must prove its infrastructure can withstand attacks. The critical inquiry for investors isn’t just about whether the AI initiative continues, but about the defensibility of this infrastructure.

Vili Lehdonvirta, a senior fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, emphasized the substantial costs associated with such defenses, yet acknowledged the pressing nature of the threat.

Eric Schmidt, former chair of the U.S. National Security Commission on AI, had posited last year that a country lagging in the AI race could turn to attacking its adversaries’ data centers.

Lehdonvirta maintained that skepticism over the likelihood of data centers facing destruction persists, despite the conversation surrounding such possibilities.

“If that skepticism holds, we may begin to see prominent data center operators such as AWS investing in air defense, akin to how shipping companies protect themselves against piracy,” he remarked.

What locations might Iran target next?

“The Iranians are undoubtedly cognizant that the fiber optic cables linking data centers to the U.S. and the rest of the globe traverse through the Strait of Hormuz,” Lehdonvirta concluded, despite the high vigilance of U.S. and allied military forces monitoring these routes.