Iran's Threats and Attacks Against U.S. Technology Companies (2026)

Iran’s Threats and Attacks Against U.S. Technology Companies (2026) are attacks that occurred during the war process between Iran, the United States and Israel that began on 28 February 2026, particularly targeting digital and cloud computing infrastructure in the Gulf region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) publicly declared U.S.-based technology companies as direct targets on 31 March 2026, resulting in attacks against Amazon’s data centers in Bahrain.

The war process that began on 28 February 2026 between Iran, the United States and Israel quickly escalated into a multifaceted regional conflict. The hostilities were not limited to military targets but also directly targeted energy infrastructure, transportation networks and economic assets.

During this period, targeting oil and gas facilities, ports, fuel depots and power infrastructure caused disruptions in global energy supply, triggering volatility in international markets.

In later stages of the conflict, the rapidly expanding digital and technological infrastructure in the Gulf region emerged as a new category of military and strategic targets. Cloud computing centers, data storage facilities and artificial intelligence infrastructure were incorporated into the scope of the conflict due to their dual civilian and military applications.

On 31 March 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced via affiliated Telegram channels that major U.S. technology companies operating in the Gulf region were designated as potential targets.

The companies named in the statement include Cisco, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, IBM, Nvidia, Tesla, Boeing, Palantir, JP Morgan, General Electric and Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence firm G42. These firms were labeled as “legitimate targets” on the grounds that they enable “terror operations” by Israel and the United States through information and artificial intelligence technologies.

The statement also called on employees of the listed companies to vacate their workplaces by 20:00 Tehran time (16:30 GMT) on Wednesday, 1 April 2026.

The Gulf region has become a rapidly growing global technology hub due to its low energy costs and strategic location. According to the New York Times, planned investments in the region amount to trillions of dollars.

Major investments in the region include:

• Stargate BAE: This data center campus, planned as a partnership between Cisco, OpenAI, Oracle and Nvidia, is considered one of the largest projects outside the United States. With an estimated cost of approximately $30 billion, it is expected to cover an area of 26 square kilometers and become operational in 2026.
• Oracle has established infrastructure in Jeddah and Riyadh in addition to its cloud regions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
• Google signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to build a large-scale artificial intelligence center as part of a $10 billion joint investment and has launched cloud regions in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
• Microsoft established a cloud data center region in Qatar in 2022 and invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42 in 2024.
• Nvidia is developing large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, aiming for a capacity of up to 500 megawatts supported by hundreds of thousands of advanced chips.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to invest over $5.3 billion to establish a new region in Saudi Arabia dedicated to artificial intelligence. AWS currently operates data center facilities in the UAE and Bahrain.

On 2 March 2026, Amazon announced that two of its data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain suffered physical damage from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks, marking one of the first documented cases of commercial cloud infrastructure being targeted as part of military operations.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported that its cloud services in Bahrain had been disrupted and that operations had been affected for the second time within a month.

Following the IRGC’s threat statement and after the deadline it set had passed, a new attack occurred in the region.

On 1 April 2026, the Bahrain Ministry of Interior announced that civil defense teams had extinguished a fire at a company facility caused by an Iranian attack but did not disclose the company’s name or the extent of the damage.

On the same day, reports citing the Financial Times stated that Amazon’s cloud operations in Bahrain had been damaged in an Iranian attack. Amazon did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the matter.

On 2 April 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), through its official outlet Sepah News, claimed to have “destroyed” Amazon’s cloud computing operations center in Bahrain. The IRGC described this attack as the first action against U.S. and Israeli-linked “espionage” companies in the region, in retaliation for assassinations targeting Iranian officials.

The statement further indicated that the continuation of U.S. and Israeli attacks despite prior warnings triggered this action and warned that if such attacks persist, other companies on the list will be “punished more severely”.

Cloudflare Radar reported that following the attack, AWS Bahrain traffic was lost and connection errors increased significantly.