After threatening major U.S. tech companies and reportedly damaging data centers in Gulf states, Iran has in recent days warned of the “total and complete destruction” of a massive OpenAI data center under construction in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, estimated to be worth about $30 billion.
The facility, also known as “Stargate UAE,” is part of the broader Stargate project — a $500 billion initiative backed by the U.S. government aimed at building global computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence, particularly artificial general intelligence (AGI). Experts now assess that the UAE may need to deploy dedicated air defense systems around the server farms.
The complex spans about 19.2 square kilometers in Abu Dhabi and does not appear on Google Maps, apparently for security reasons. While most of the project’s activity is concentrated in the United States, including campuses in Texas and Michigan, the Abu Dhabi site is considered the largest deployment of U.S. AI infrastructure outside the country. The project is led by a consortium that includes OpenAI, SoftBank, Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund, and major tech companies such as Nvidia, Oracle and Cisco.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued the threat in a video statement, warning that “any damage to Iran’s power infrastructure will be met with a decisive response.” IRGC spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaqari threatened the “total and complete destruction” of American and Israeli facilities, with the data center explicitly marked in the video as a target.
“If the United States continues its threats regarding Iran’s power plants, the following retaliatory steps will be taken swiftly,” the spokesperson said. “All power stations, energy infrastructure and information and communications technology of the Zionist regime, and all similar companies in the region with American shareholders, will face total and complete destruction.”
At the end of Zolfaqari’s remarks, the video transitions to an image of Earth from space, zooms in on Abu Dhabi via Google Maps, and focuses on a desert area not far from the coast, without naming it. However, a caption attached to the site reads: “Nothing remains hidden from our eyes, even if Google conceals it.” The video then shifts to a night-vision-style display of the area, showing the data center from above.
Iran has already reportedly caused significant damage in the past month to data centers operated by Amazon Web Services in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, as well as Oracle facilities in Dubai, forcing them to scale back operations following missile strikes.
Because two “availability zones” in the UAE were hit simultaneously, standard backup systems used by many companies failed, forcing businesses to move data to centers outside the Gulf region.
In recent weeks, Iran has issued similar threats targeting Middle East facilities of major technology companies including Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Google and at least 14 other U.S. tech firms.