Data centers become military targets following Iranian drone strikes

Iranian drone strikes targeting Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have resulted in permanent data loss for some customers. The attacks, which began in March, targeted commercial data centers, marking a shift where digital infrastructure is treated as a strategic military target similar to power grids or ports.

In the UAE, Amazon was unable to restore access to resources hosted in one specific availability zone, while Bahrain experienced more severe impacts. AWS reported that it has provided $150 million in credits to affected Middle Eastern customers and has been encouraging data migration to avoid active warzones.

The vulnerability of these facilities has accelerated the global push for ‘sovereign AI.’ Governments are increasingly seeking to control their own compute power and data to avoid reliance on foreign firms. Global spending on sovereign AI is expected to exceed $100 billion this year, with nations including Canada, France, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE establishing national compute funds and GPU allocations.