Why Iran is Threatening OpenAI's Stargate Project

War in the Middle East is having unfortunate consequences for AI giants, with infrastructure emerging as a new pressure point. 

Now, OpenAI’s US$30bn AI data centre in the UAE – which is currently under development – has been singled out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a video threatening "complete and utter annihilation".

It comes as US President Donald Trump issues an ultimatum to Iran surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, stating that military strikes will target civilian infrastructure – including power-generation facilities and bridges – unless the crucial shipping lane is reopened. 

“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again," President Trump said in a White House press conference. 

Trump added that, in the event of severe bombing taking place, "it will take them [Iran] 100 years to rebuild."

AI infrastructure in cross hairs

In the IRGC video, a spokesperson warned that: "Should the USA proceed with its threats concerning Iran’s power plant facilities the following retaliatory measures shall be promptly enacted.

“All power plants, energy infrastructure and information and communications technology of the Zionist regime and all similar companies within the region that have American shareholders shall face complete and utter annihilation.” 

Following the threat, the video showed a night vision view of the Stargate facility in UAE, with a caption that said: "Nothing stays hidden to our sight, though hidden by Google."

Stargate is a US$500bn flagship AI and data centre project backed by UAE state-linked firm G42 and developed in partnership with OpenAI and other US tech firms. 

Earlier in March, IRGC attacks caused damage to Amazon’s AWS data centres in the Middle East, with services in the region experiencing significant downtime.

One facility caught fire, with AWS subsequently revealing that "one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data centre, creating sparks and fire". 

Service disruptions that followed reportedly saw millions of people across Dubai and Abu Dhabi left unable to pay for taxis, order food or access mobile banking, as outages rippled through payments apps, ride-hailing platforms and major banks that rely on AWS in the Middle East.

Data centre ambitions under threat

Needless to say, the war in Iran has dimmed the ambitions of a region which was increasingly positioning itself as the world’s data centre hub. 

“UAE and Bahrain have both been positioning themselves as global AI hubs by investing heavily in data centres and fibre infrastructure," explains Sean Gorman, CEO of Zephr.xyz and a contractor to the US Air Force.

"If they can disrupt that infrastructure, it puts their strategic position under risk while also disrupting operations that are important to the economy."

Sean also warned that, beyond the threat from drones, the Middle East also faces cyber and sabotage risks to the dense cluster of subsea cables landing at Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast, a geographic chokepoint linking regional data hubs to the wider internet.​