The war exposed a 'next-generation' target and raises questions about the Gulf's prospects as an AI superpower
Attacks by Iran's forces on commercial data centers, believed to be the first in the history of warfare, left millions of people in cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi unable to pay for a taxi, order food or check their bank accounts on mobile apps on Monday morning, The Guardian wrote in an analysis.
While it is unclear whether there was any military impact of the attacks launched by Iranian forces on Amazon's data centers, the strikes took the war directly into the lives of the 11 million people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where 9 out of 10 people are foreign nationals. The American technology company advised customers to secure their data outside the region.
Perhaps more importantly, the attacks on this “next generation” war target are now raising questions about the prospects of the UAE's plans and billions of dollars in foreign investment to exploit what it hopes will be its “new oil” – artificial intelligence (AI).
“The UAE really wants to be a major player in AI,” said Chris McGuire, an artificial intelligence and technology competition expert who served on the White House security council in the Biden administration.
“Their government has a very strong belief in this technology, probably stronger than any other government in the world, and if they start to have security questions about it, then they're going to have to address them very quickly, somehow,” the US expert added.
UAE, ranked 44th in the top unit cost per watt for data center construction
A data center is designed to store, manage and operate digital data, and significantly more power requires a fast and constant supply of very cheap electricity.
The UAE, which is trying to diversify away from fossil fuels, has shown that it has these resources in abundance, along with a huge sovereign wealth fund, ready to invest and subsidize projects.
According to Turner & Townsend's Global Data Center Index, the total global cost of building data centers will increase by 5.5% in 2025, but the UAE ranks 44th out of 52 in the ranking of the highest unit costs per watt.
In addition, due to its geography, the UAE is a critical point for submarine cables, providing access between Europe and Asia. Then there is the geopolitical argument, as the US is keen to keep the Gulf states away from Chinese technology.
McGuire believes that events in the Middle East could be crucial.
“If we're going to have large-scale data centers built in the Middle East, we're going to have to be pretty serious about how we protect them,” he said. “Maybe this means missile defense for data centers,” McGuire concluded.
