Iran Targets $30 Billion "Stargate" AI Hub in UAE With Threats of "Complete and Utter Annihilation"

The IRGC targets the $30 billion Stargate UAE data center, threatening "complete annihilation" of the site used by OpenAI, Nvidia, and Oracle.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 7, 2026, 5:46 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from David Nield

The Militarization of Global AI Infrastructure

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has moved into the digital and physical infrastructure of the artificial intelligence sector, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) explicitly targeting the Stargate UAE data center. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the IRGC, issued a video address stating that if the United States proceeds with threats against Iran’s power facilities, Tehran will respond with the "complete and utter annihilation" of Western-linked information and communication technology. The threat was visually reinforced with satellite imagery of the Stargate site, a $30 billion facility nestled in the Emirati desert that serves as a critical node for OpenAI, Nvidia, Cisco, Oracle, and SoftBank.

Strategic Importance of the 1GW Stargate Project

Announced last year as a cornerstone of OpenAI’s vision for "frontier-scale compute capacity," the Stargate UAE project was designed to provide 1 gigawatt (GW) of power to fuel the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI). The first phase of the project, a 200-megawatt (MW) installation, was scheduled to go live this year and reportedly incorporates approximately 10,000 high-end Nvidia chips. Because of its strong links to the U.S. government and its role in Western technological dominance, the facility has become a high-value target in the "Operation Epic Fury" era. The IRGC’s focus on this specific site underscores the transition of AI data centers from commercial assets to strategic military objectives.

Retaliatory Logic and Infrastructure Vulnerability

The Iranian threat is framed as a direct "eye-for-an-eye" response to President Donald Trump’s warnings that the U.S. will decimate Iranian power plants and bridges. By identifying Stargate and other "Zionist regime" ICT infrastructure as targets, Tehran is signaling its ability to disrupt the backbone of the American tech economy. Beyond Stargate, the IRGC has indicated it is monitoring sites linked to Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Meta across the region. This strategy of targeting energy-intensive compute hubs reflects a sophisticated understanding of the modern "real economy," where the destruction of a single 1GW facility could stall years of AI research and development for the world’s leading firms.