Data centers, the physical foundation of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, are emerging as new targets in modern warfare following the US-Iran war.

This is because AI data centers around the Persian Gulf, where the recent war took place, were targeted by concentrated missile and drone strikes alongside the region's oil refineries and tourism facilities.

CNN reported on the 3rd (local time) that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had previously released a list of 29 regional technological facilities as targets for attack, which included facilities owned by U.S. big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft (MS), Nvidia, and Palantir.

The United States and Iran traded strikes on at least five data centers during the war.

Iran attacked four data centers located in U.S. allies in the Gulf region, among which the Amazon data center in Bahrain was struck twice, on April 30 and July 21.

The United States also struck one data center in Iran.

CNN noted, "While data centers have previously been targets of cyberattacks, this year marks the first time physical attacks have taken place."

Although data centers can be considered civilian facilities, they represent a kind of "gray zone" where the boundary between civilian and military blurs in modern warfare, where AI technology is integrated into military operations.

Regarding the reason for attacking the Amazon data center, Iran claimed, "It is because (Amazon) provides cloud services for U.S. military intelligence activities."

In fact, Amazon has contracts with the U.S. government on projects such as the USD 9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, with Google, MS, and Oracle also participating.

As geopolitical risks in the Middle East resurface, economic security has also gone on high alert for Middle Eastern countries that have invested massive amounts of "oil money" into AI and data centers.

The Middle East aspires to be the world's third-largest "AI hub" after the United States and China.

Saudi Arabia is investing a significant portion of its USD 1 trillion sovereign wealth fund into AI.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) contracted a USD 500 billion AI data center project with the U.S. government last year to build "Stargate," which is the largest scale outside the United States.

AI-related projects for which Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have signed investment agreements with the United States reach USD 2 trillion.

However, with data centers establishing themselves as new military targets, additional variables must now be considered by companies building data centers and governments seeking to attract them.

Redundancy design to prepare against natural disasters or fires—meaning a design ensuring normal operations through another data center even if one is paralyzed—must now take military attacks into account.

CNN also forecasted that in regions where assets cannot be safely protected, companies might reconsider constructing data centers even if they are highly profitable.

Data centers becoming military targets are also affecting the related insurance market.

CNN reported that "data center insurance premiums are soaring," and that it is fortunate if companies can secure coverage at all.

Philip Lay, head of property insurance at insurer MSIG, described AI data centers as no different from "massive warehouses filled with extremely expensive equipment."

(Photo: Getty Images)