Against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the Middle East, Iran has broadened its offensive against U.S. technology giants. Reports from multiple domestic and international sources indicate that Iran recently launched an attack on Amazon's cloud computing data center in Bahrain. This marks a second military strike targeting hyperscale cloud infrastructure, following an initial attack in early March, raising market concerns about the security of technology supply chains and digital infrastructure.
The incident has significantly heightened global risk aversion. The technology sector, particularly assets related to cloud computing, data centers, and AI infrastructure, experienced increased volatility, with some capital shifting towards safe-haven assets like energy and gold. Amazon.com shares fell as much as 2.7% at the open on Thursday.
On a deeper level, the attack on Amazon's data center may alter the market's valuation framework for tech giants—shifting them from being perceived as "high-growth assets" to complex assets that also require factoring in a "geopolitical risk discount." As data centers begin to resemble oil fields and power plants as targets, the operational logic of the global technology industry is being redefined.
Iran Confirms Striking Amazon Data Center on Thursday, Links Facility to Espionage According to reports, on Thursday, April 2nd local time, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that the third phase of the 90th round of the "True Promise-4" military operation had commenced. A declaration indicated that Iranian forces had targeted multiple objectives, including strikes on seven U.S. and Israeli air bases. Furthermore, during this phase, an attack was carried out on the Amazon cloud computing center in Bahrain, which was described as being involved in espionage activities.
Some overseas media reported on Thursday that Iran publicly stated the strike on Amazon's data center was retaliation for actions targeting Iran, directly aiming at U.S. technological infrastructure.
Among these reports, British media, citing informed sources, indicated the data center was "damaged" in the assault, with local fire departments involved in extinguishing fires. Multiple reports stated Iran used drones to carry out the strike, affecting some critical cloud infrastructure.
It was reported that Amazon's cloud computing business, AWS, experienced increased error rates and decreased availability for some services, and companies were advised to migrate workloads to other regions.
Notably, this is not an isolated incident. As early as early March, Amazon's data centers in the Gulf region had already suffered multiple attacks.
According to reports from early March, regional artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, built by U.S. tech companies investing tens of billions of dollars in the Middle East, became a target in the Iranian conflict for the first time.
The reports pointed out that Amazon reported damage to one of its facilities in Bahrain due to an attack nearby on March 1st, while two other data centers in the UAE suffered "direct hits" from drones. Amazon's cloud service health status page indicated that the relevant facilities remained offline.
Iran Warned on Tuesday of Strikes Against 18 U.S. Firms, Including Tech Giants, as Conflict Spills into Tech Sector This latest event occurs against the backdrop of Iran's escalating retaliatory actions against the U.S. and Israel.
According to reports from multiple media outlets, on Tuesday, March 31st, Iran explicitly warned it would expand its strikes to include 18 U.S. technology giants and their overseas infrastructure, encompassing areas like cloud computing, chips, and AI, formally placing tech companies on a military target list.
Several key trends are evident from the current situation:
* **End of Tech "Neutrality":** Cloud services, once considered commercial infrastructure, are now potentially identified as serving military and intelligence purposes, thus becoming legitimate targets. * **AI Infrastructure as Strategic Assets:** Middle Eastern nations are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in developing AI and data center industries. These attacks could have a "chilling effect" on related investments. * **Conflict Spillover into the Digital Economy:** The expanding scope of targets—from ports and oil/gas facilities to data centers—signals that the impact of war on global supply chains is extending from the "physical world" to the "digital world."
From Oil and Gas to Compute Power: Data Centers Become "Hard Targets" Analysts believe the attack on Amazon's data center signifies a major shift in war objectives—from traditional energy infrastructure to digital infrastructure.
On one hand, the importance of data centers has qualitatively changed:
* Cloud computing and AI infrastructure are seen as the "nerve center of national operations." * Their high dependence on power, cooling, and networks means damage to a critical node can trigger a chain reaction.
On the other hand, the attack threshold is not necessarily higher:
* Complete destruction of buildings isn't required; disrupting power or networks can cause prolonged paralysis. * The concentrated deployment of large cloud facilities makes them easier, high-value targets.
This also explains why Amazon AWS became a primary target—it operates numerous self-built data centers in the Middle East, making its assets more concentrated.
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