- Iran targets UAE’s Stargate AI data center
- IRGC hints at “complete and absolute annihilation”
- 1GW of capacity planned for Middle East site
As the conflict in the Middle East continues, Iran has threatened to target the $30 billion Stargate AI data center located in the United Arab Emirates, a data center relied on by tech giants such as OpenAI, Nvidia, Cisco, Oracle, and SoftBank.
The Times of India reports on the threat, which was expressed clearly and specifically in a video speech by Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force in Iran.
“If the United States continues its threats regarding Iran’s power plant facilities, the following retaliatory measures will be quickly applied,” says Zolfaghari, identifying “all power plants, energy infrastructure, and information and communication technology of the Zionist regime” as targets.
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Those targets would face “complete and utter annihilation,” Zolfaghari continues, before the video cuts to a Google Maps shot of the United Arab Emirates Stargate base in the desert, hidden in the standard map view but visible via night vision.
‘Border-scale computing capacity’
Iran leveling up They released a video threatening to attack the 1GW Stargate AI data center in the United Arab Emirates. The data center is hidden on Google maps, they even showed it pic.twitter.com/LuOGIp3BVjApril 3, 2026
The Stargate UAE project was announced last year and was described by OpenAI as representative of “our long-term vision to build edge-scale computing capacity around the world in the service of secure and widely beneficial AGI.”
With strong ties also to the US government, the data center is now in the crosshairs of the IRGC and its weapons. The site is planned to offer 1 GW (gigawatt) of power and computing capacity, and the first 200 MW (megawatt) phase is said to incorporate about 10,000 Nvidia chips.
It’s unclear exactly how much of the data center is currently operational, but the first 200 MW phase was scheduled to come online this year before the war in Iran began. It would represent a significant blow to AI technology infrastructure.
The IRGC continues to target targets linked to the United States and American companies in the Middle East region, including Microsoft, Apple, Google and Meta. As the war drags into its second month, Stargate UAE and other critical sites remain under threat.
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