Iran Threatens OpenAI's Stargate Data Center in Abu Dhabi with Missile Strikes

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has released a video threatening OpenAI's planned Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi with missile strikes, escalating tensions in the ongoing U.S.-Iran war that began in February 2026. The threat comes after Iranian missiles already struck Amazon Web Services data centers in Bahrain and an Oracle facility in Dubai, with Iran warning of further attacks if the U.S. proceeds with President Trump's Tuesday deadline threat to strike Iranian civilian infrastructure including power plants and desalination facilities unless Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz. The Stargate project is a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle announced in January 2025 to build AI data centers internationally. The conflict has choked global supply chain traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz shipping channel since February, with Iran naming multiple tech companies including Nvidia and Apple as potential targets for retaliation.

Iranian Threats Against AI Data Centers in the Middle East

• ▪Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari appeared in a video released late last week and shared widely on Sunday regarding threats against U.S. infrastructure
• ▪Iranian missiles struck Amazon Web Services data centers in Bahrain as a result of the war
• ▪Iran released a video showing an image of a globe zooming in on the Stargate data center in the United Arab Emirates with the message "nothing stays hidden to our sight, though hidden by Google."
• ▪Iran warned of further attacks on data centers across the Middle East in response to ongoing threats and air strikes from the United States

The Stargate AI Initiative and Regional Expansion

• ▪A Stargate data center is located in the United Arab Emirates
• ▪The Stargate initiative originally struggled to get off the ground due to alleged funding troubles and costs associated with tariffs
• ▪The Stargate AI initiative was announced in January 2025
• ▪Stargate is a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build AI data centers
• ▪The Stargate initiative sought to expand with new data centers internationally

Escalating U.S.-Iran Conflict and Infrastructure Targeting

• ▪U.S. President Trump threatened to strike Iran's civilian infrastructure, including power plants and water desalination plants, by the end of Tuesday if Iran doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz
• ▪Several data centers in the Middle East region have already been hit by missiles as a result of the Iran-U.S. war
• ▪The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global shipping channel that has choked global supply chain traffic since the start of the war in February

Perspective of OpenAI and Stargate partners

• ▪The Stargate joint venture's Middle East data centers are now positioned in the crossfire of U.S.-Iran military escalation
• ▪OpenAI's Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi represents a strategic international expansion of AI infrastructure outside the United States

Perspective of United States

• ▪President Trump set a Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on civilian infrastructure