Iran is threatening to bomb the $30 billion Stargate AI data center backed by OpenAI, Nvidia, and other tech giants

• Iran is taking aim at the Stargate UAE AI data center
• The IRGC hints at 'complete and utter annihilation'
• 1GW of capacity is planned for the site in the Middle East

As the conflict in the Middle East continues, Iran has threatened to take aim at the $30 billion Stargate AI data center located in the United Arab Emirates — a data center relied on by tech giants including OpenAI, Nvidia, Cisco, Oracle, and SoftBank.

The Times of India reports on the threat, which was clearly and specifically made in a video address by Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force in Iran.

"Should the US proceed with its threats concerning Iran's power plant facilities, the following retaliatory measures shall be promptly enacted," says Zolfaghari, identifying "all power plants, energy infrastructure, and information and communication technology of the Zionist regime" as targets.

Those targets would face "complete and utter annihilation" Zolfaghari continues, before the video switches to a Google Maps shot of the Stargate UAE base in the desert — hidden in the standard map view but visible via night vision.

'Frontier-scale compute capacity'

The Stargate UAE project was announced last year, with OpenAI describing it as representative of "our long-term vision for building frontier-scale compute capacity around the world in service of safe, secure, and broadly beneficial AGI".

With strong links to the US government as well, the data center is now very much in the sights of the IRGC and its weapons. The site is planned to offer 1GW (gigawatt) of power and compute capacity, with the first phase of 200MW (megawatts) said to incorporate some 10,000 Nvidia chips.

It's not clear exactly how much of the data center is currently operational, but that first 200MW phase was scheduled to go live this year before the war in Iran started. It would represent a significant blow to AI tech infrastructure.

The IRGC continues to take aim at targets linked to the US and to US companies in the Middle East region, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Meta. As the war stretches into a second month, Stargate UAE and other critical sites remain under threat.

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