Iran threatens ‘Stargate’ AI data centers

In Brief Posted: 11:06 AM PDT · April 6, 2026 Rebecca Szkutak Iran threatens ‘Stargate’ AI data centers Iran has warned of further attacks on data centers across the Middle East in response to ongoing threats and air strikes from the United States. Iran’s military said that if the U.S. went ahead with its threats to hit its civilian infrastructure, the country would retaliate with its own strikes against U.S.’ energy and tech infrastructure in the region, according to a video released late last week and shared widely on Sunday of Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari. The video released by Iran shows an image of a globe, then zooming in on the Stargate data center in the United Arab Emirates with the message of “nothing stays hidden to our sight, though hidden by Google.” Stargate is a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build AI data centers, announced in January 2025. The initiative originally struggled to get off the ground due to alleged funding troubles and costs associated with tariffs , and sought to expand with new data centers internationally. The latest threat comes after U.S. President Trump threatened to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure, like power plants and water desalination plants, by the end of Tuesday if Iran doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping channel that has choked global supply chain traffic since the start of the war in February. Several data centers in the region have already been hit by missiles as a result of the war. Iranian missiles struck Amazon Web Services data centers in Bahrain and an Oracle data center in Dubai . Iran also threatened tech companies including Nvidia and Apple by name last week. Techcrunch event This Week Only: Up to $482 savings for Disrupt 2026 Offer ends April 10, 11:59 p.m. PT Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for thr...