“AI Nightmare” in the Persian Gulf: Iranian Drones Hit Amazon Data Centers in the Emirates and Bahrain

A day after the U.S. and Israel launched their opening strikes against Iran, the Islamic Republic responded with waves of drones aimed at the Gulf’s newest high-value targets: U.S. data centers.

More than six months after the barrage, a damaged Amazon Web Services facility in Abu Dhabi and another in Bahrain remain largely out of service. The company has told customers to move their data to other regions while it repairs the facilities, without giving a date for completion of the work.

The strikes and lasting damage are complicating the promise of Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates to become global data processors for industries such as artificial intelligence. They add a major new risk for U.S. companies weighing investments that could cost tens of billions of dollars.

Emirati authorities have discussed the possibility of building data centers underground, which would enormously increase costs, and of deploying anti-drone defense systems near computing centers. The Emirates, which bore the brunt of Iran’s attacks during the war with over 2,800 drones and missiles, have temporarily allowed some domestic entities to move their data abroad while Amazon works on repairing the facility.

The Iranian strikes on Amazon’s facilities caused fires, damaged infrastructure and forced authorities to cut power. Water used to extinguish the fires caused even more damage. Even now, more than 130 computing services remain disrupted at the Abu Dhabi facility and 140 at the Bahrain one; only five at each have been restored.

Source: The Wall Street Journal