Drone strikes on data centers spook Big Tech, halting Middle East projects
Drone strikes on data centers spook Big Tech, halting Middle East projects
无人机袭击数据中心引发科技巨头恐慌，中东项目被迫叫停
A data center developer has paused all Middle East project investments after one of its facilities was damaged by an Iranian missile or drone attack. The decision comes as the Iran war is forcing Silicon Valley investors and tech companies to rethink a trillion-dollar plan to build more AI and cloud data centers in Gulf countries. 一家数据中心开发商在旗下设施遭到伊朗导弹或无人机袭击受损后，已暂停了在中东的所有项目投资。随着伊朗战争的爆发，硅谷投资者和科技公司被迫重新审视在海湾国家建设更多人工智能和云数据中心的万亿美元计划。
The damaged data center is owned by Pure Data Centre Group, a London-based company that is operating or developing more than 1 gigawatt of data center capacity across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. “No one’s going to run into a burning building, so to speak,” Pure DC CEO Gary Wojtaszek told CNBC. “No one’s going to put in new additional capital at scale to do anything until everything settles down.” 受损的数据中心由总部位于伦敦的 Pure Data Centre Group 拥有，该公司在欧洲、中东和亚洲运营或开发的数据中心容量超过 1 吉瓦。“可以说，没有人会冲进着火的建筑物，”Pure DC 首席执行官 Gary Wojtaszek 在接受 CNBC 采访时表示，“在局势平息之前，没有人会大规模投入新的额外资金去做任何事情。”
Data center developers are already eating the costs of uninsurable war damage from the conflict, which began with a US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28. Iran primarily responded by attacking shipping to shut down the Strait of Hormuz trade corridor along with striking US military bases and energy infrastructure across the Gulf region. 数据中心开发商已经在承担冲突带来的无法投保的战争损失，这场冲突始于 2 月 28 日美以对伊朗的袭击。伊朗的主要回应是袭击航运以封锁霍尔木兹海峡贸易走廊，并打击了海湾地区的美军基地和能源基础设施。
Iran also directly struck two Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the United Arab Emirates, while a near-miss from an Iranian one-way attack drone damaged a third AWS data center in Bahrain. The Iranian attacks caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery, and also triggered fire suppression systems that caused water damage, AWS reported through its service dashboard on March 1. 伊朗还直接袭击了位于阿拉伯联合酋长国的两个亚马逊云科技（AWS）数据中心，而一枚伊朗单向攻击无人机的近距离脱靶则损坏了巴林境内的第三个 AWS 数据中心。AWS 在 3 月 1 日通过其服务仪表板报告称，伊朗的袭击造成了结构性损坏，中断了电力供应，并触发了消防系统导致水渍损失。
That led to widespread disruptions in cloud services for AWS customers like banks, payment platforms, the Dubai-based ride-hailing app Careem, and the data cloud provider Snowflake. Crucially for Amazon’s bottom line, the company chose to waive customer charges in its Middle East cloud region for the entire month of March 2026, as reported by The Register. 这导致 AWS 的客户（如银行、支付平台、总部位于迪拜的网约车应用 Careem 以及数据云提供商 Snowflake）的云服务出现大范围中断。据《The Register》报道，对亚马逊的利润而言至关重要的是，该公司选择免除其云服务中东区域 2026 年 3 月全月的客户费用。
That decision cost Amazon an estimated $150 million—not including the damaged data centers—because existing civil law frameworks put the financial burden on data center operators to absorb costs and refund clients in the event of military conflicts, according to Tech Policy Press. 据《Tech Policy Press》报道，这一决定使亚马逊损失了约 1.5 亿美元（不包括受损数据中心的损失），因为现有的民法框架规定，在发生军事冲突时，数据中心运营商必须承担财务负担，吸收成本并向客户退款。
Meanwhile, Pure DC’s data center campus on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island in the United Arab Emirates was supposedly hit by shrapnel, implying a near-miss rather than a direct hit. The 16-acre site already has 20 megawatts of data center capacity operational in service of an unnamed hyperscale customer, with the facilities being designed to support AI and cloud deployments. The company has not disclosed when the event happened or any potential data center disruptions and costs resulting from the incident. 与此同时，Pure DC 位于阿拉伯联合酋长国阿布扎比亚斯岛的数据中心园区据称被弹片击中，这意味着这更像是一次近距离脱靶而非直接命中。该占地 16 英亩的园区已有 20 兆瓦的数据中心容量投入运营，服务于一家未具名的超大规模客户，其设施旨在支持人工智能和云部署。该公司尚未披露事件发生的时间，也未透露由此产生的任何潜在数据中心中断和成本。
Big Tech in the crosshairs
科技巨头成为目标
It has been clear for a while that tech companies cannot pretend to be mere bystanders in the ongoing conflict. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps directly threatened retaliation against US companies that it identified as having Israeli links and supporting military tech applications after an Iranian bank’s data center was hit by a US or Israeli strike on March 11. 显而易见，科技公司无法在当前的冲突中假装只是旁观者。在 3 月 11 日一家伊朗银行的数据中心遭到美以袭击后，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队直接威胁要对那些被其认定与以色列有联系并支持军事技术应用的美国公司进行报复。
The Iranian military organization released a list of “Iran’s new targets” that included offices and data centers operated by Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia, and Oracle, and it reiterated a similar threat against tech companies on March 31 in retaliation for Israeli and US military strikes that resulted in the assassination of Iranian leaders. 该伊朗军事组织发布了一份“伊朗新目标”名单，其中包括谷歌、微软、Palantir、IBM、英伟达和甲骨文运营的办公室和数据中心。3 月 31 日，为了报复导致伊朗领导人被暗杀的以美军事打击，该组织重申了对科技公司的类似威胁。
The Revolutionary Guard attempted to make good on that threat by attacking an Oracle data center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on April 2, according to Data Center Dynamics. Although the Dubai Media Office initially dismissed the claim, it later confirmed that shrapnel had fallen on the facade of the Oracle facility after a “successful aerial interception” by local air defense systems. 据《Data Center Dynamics》报道，革命卫队于 4 月 2 日袭击了位于阿拉伯联合酋长国迪拜的甲骨文数据中心，试图兑现这一威胁。尽管迪拜媒体办公室最初否认了这一说法，但后来证实，在当地防空系统进行“成功的空中拦截”后，确实有弹片落在了甲骨文设施的立面上。
Such incidents are forcing tech companies to rethink how they operate in the Middle East and other regions where military conflict is a risk, according to tech publication Rest of World. Possibilities include downsizing from massive data center campuses to smaller facilities distributed more widely, which would increase operational costs. Forbes reported that defense companies are seeing more interest in securing data centers with anti-drone and air-defense systems. 据科技刊物《Rest of World》报道，此类事件正迫使科技公司重新思考其在中东及其他存在军事冲突风险地区的运营方式。可能的方案包括从大型数据中心园区缩减规模，转而采用分布更广的小型设施，但这会增加运营成本。《福布斯》报道称，国防公司发现人们对利用反无人机和防空系统保护数据中心的兴趣日益浓厚。
Silicon Valley investors and Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates may also need to rethink plans for making the Middle East into a hub for AI data centers alongside the United States and China, Rest of World reported. US tech companies have each announced plans for data center developments worth billions of dollars, while certain Gulf countries have each pledged hundreds of billions of dollars for investment in AI chips and data centers. 据《Rest of World》报道，硅谷投资者以及沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国等海湾国家，可能也需要重新思考将中东打造为继美国和中国之后的人工智能数据中心枢纽的计划。美国科技公司此前均宣布了价值数十亿美元的数据中心开发计划，而一些海湾国家也各自承诺投入数千亿美元用于人工智能芯片和数据中心的投资。
But for now, data center developer Pure DC still sees the Middle East as a “long-term opportunity” despite the temporary investment pause, according to CEO Gary Wojtaszek in his CNBC interview. On April 27, the company announced it had “recommitted its focus on the Middle East” after securing approval from a United Arab Emirates utility company to expand data center capacity at the facility that was damaged by shrapnel. 但据首席执行官 Gary Wojtaszek 在接受 CNBC 采访时表示，尽管暂时暂停了投资，数据中心开发商 Pure DC 仍将中东视为一个“长期机遇”。4 月 27 日，该公司宣布在获得阿拉伯联合酋长国一家公用事业公司的批准后，将扩建受弹片损坏设施的数据中心容量，并“重新致力于中东市场”。