The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to destroy OpenAI’s $30 billion Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi if the United States attacks Iranian energy infrastructure.

Key Points

• IRGC spokesperson Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari issued the threat on April 5, targeting regional facilities with American shareholders.
• The Stargate project is a high-value joint venture involving OpenAI and Nvidia, representing a critical hub for global artificial intelligence research.
• Iranian forces have previously claimed or conducted attacks on Amazon Web Services and Oracle data centers located in the Gulf region.
• The threat utilizes satellite imagery to demonstrate the capability to monitor and target specific, high-value technological infrastructure.

Why it Matters

This escalation marks a shift in modern warfare where AI data centers are treated as strategic assets equivalent to traditional military or energy targets. The vulnerability of these commercially owned facilities forces governments to reevaluate how they protect the essential digital infrastructure underpinning the global economy.