Data center developer pauses Middle East projects after war damage

Uninsurable war damage is forcing tech companies to rethink Middle East plans.

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[SinkingIntoTheDepths]

"B2B military solutions", I hate our timeline!

I'll buy that for a dollar!

 

[frogstomp]

"B2B military solutions"

Title of my next Shadow Run campaign.

I hate this timeline!

Title of the Shadow Run campaign after that

 

[randomname19937]

That's a happy turn of events for the planet. Somehow, I don't think middle-eastern data centers would use carbon-free energy.

 

[tlhIngan]

Would it be wrong to hope some of US-based AI data centers are also attacked by people with drones, so long as we stipulate none of the skeleton crews who work there should be harmed? I'm certain there are some ethical, enterprising Ukrainians who can help.

It's not hard, actually. You can do it by not attacking the data center itself, but its infrastructure.

For example, the AC units on the roof are not particularly well shielded - it's just chiller units built just a tiny bit sturdier than your home AC unit. You can choose to destroy the coils, or clog it up with something to make it much harder to cool. It doesn't take much.

AI datacenters consume megawatts of power, and that becomes heat, so the AC units are a vulnerability. Megawatts of power also require huge power substations making that another vulnerable point. Ukraine's power grid issues will take years to fix purely because the backlog of megawatt class transformers is in the years.

If you get a hold of spray foam chemicals, you can probably send drones with part A and drones with part B and have them collide with the coils so the stuff mixes and generates that hard spray foam insulation. Ruins the unit.

None of this really will hurt humans that are around other than being a nasty chemical to be around where you might need to take a shower.

Iran's drones exploding the data centers though are meant to disable and destroy equipment - as in physically damage the servers inside which basically is meant to intimidate people from not wanting to work there lest they risk their lives. Attacking the AC units will take weeks of downtime to fix mostly in having to get replacement units installed.

 

[AverageDutchGuy]

This is going to push the geostationary orbit data center idea even harder. I still don't see how the economics of that concept could ever work unless we were living up there and could easily maintain and upgrade them, i.e., attached to a permanent ring habitat at GEO.

I'm sure some of these things will get launched. I'm not thinking it will be many before the cost doesn't make sense.

Until the first one gets taken out by a piece of debris.

As for the economics, they don't work. At all. The cost doesn't make sense, the reasoning doesn't make sense. It's still cheaper to just build a heavy bunker on earth and put the DC in that

 

[plastic bag]

I'm an independent warrior. I'm protecting my own local CPU, GPU, SSD, HD, MB, RAM, and PS. They'll have to pry my local PC from my cold, dead hands!*

*Or maybe not. The thing won't be worth a shit when they stop writing local software to run on individual PCs.

As long as there is open source, there is a way.

 

[Sulla]

Thanks, Obama.

 

[jf1450]

Yeah I'm sure this time it won't take decades like gulf war 2 and Afghanistan
Seriously, if the USA couldn't defeat the Taliban how will it defeat Iran?

Trying to defeat terrorism is like pi$$ing in the wind.

 

[codeycodey]

Good thing all these companies indicated their preference in the 2024 election because if the other candidate had won they might have ended up paying a little more in taxes and we all know how disruptive that can be.

Shots fired! Uh, wait, too soon?

 

[TylerH]

It is almost like infra capex is a bad idea in a region prone to lots of conflict. Who could have imagined that?? Clearly not the highly paid analysts and managers who drew up these plans.

The thing is the places these data centers were built is not prone to lots of conflict; they didn't build them in Iran, or Afghanistan, or Yemen. They probably did not expect the US to be so stupid to go to actual war with Iran, or if they did, that they would be smart enough to go all in rather than this slow rolling "we don't really know what we're doing" war.

 

[TylerH]

Shared economic interests are one of the most effective ways to keep people from killing each other in large numbers. The idea of a European union first found purchase after the continent had twice within 25 years turned itself into the gates of hell. The premise is simple: when entities have more to lose than gain by destroying each other, they tend to find other solutions.

In starting a war in the Middle East as a public relations exercise, the current U.S. regime has radically reduced shared economic interests. It's a vicious cycle: war reduces the impediments to waging war. Destruction of economies is how conflicts spread to involve the entire planet. In the 21st century, when at least nine nations have the ability to end all complex life on earth, the conflagration is a threat not just to nations, but to species: nearly all species.

All of which is to say, the psychotic conman, liar, thieving pedophile whom Americans permit to run their country is, unsurprisingly, willing to destroy civilization entirely rather than be relieved of power. In the meantime, the tiny percentage of humans involved in death industries are raking in billions, with their usual indifference to the welfare of anyone else.

The West Wing said it best: "free trade stops wars".

 

[nushoin]

Good thing all these companies indicated their preference in the 2024 election because if the other candidate had won they might have ended up paying a little more in taxes and we all know how disruptive that can be.

So according to you, no one in the middle east has any agency. And there have been no wars in the middle east when democrats were in charge. Got it.

 

[SomewhereAroundBarstow]

So according to you, no one in the middle east has any agency. And there have been no wars in the middle east when democrats were in charge. Got it.

Actually, every iota of that is according to weird-ass pre-programmed loops in your head because I'd never remotely claim anything like that and there's no reasonable way to come to the conclusion that it was implied by anything I wrote. But good job sticking to the script.

 

[TheElmagnifico]

The most ridiculous location for a data center. Electricity from burning oil, searing hot, water from desalination plants....

Dubai will be the first Manga-style ghost cities. Buried in sand with a vanity tower sticking out on top.

 

[ingramm]

Awesome, time to bring some to the US and deal with a few water guzzler's

 

[aggressive-trail]

Tell that to the Ukrainians who pulled off Operation Spider's Web.

Russia is using fixed-wing UAVs as motherships to carry FPV drones long distances (acting as a comms relay too)

You mean the 1 audacious plan they executed in over 4 years of the war to specifically damage Russia’s strategic bombing fleet. You’re somehow comparing that to the IRGC having the capacity to repeat that to bomb…data centers? And drone motherships don’t extend range much beyond 30-40 clicks beyond the FLOT. Such a ridiculous and unserious comment.

 

[Scipio Africanus]

Maybe I'm a bit newb in my thinking here. But besides the military threats now appearing, isn't putting big, hot data centers that drink millions of gallons of water to cool down in the middle of desert environments with water issues a stupid idea?

 

[Cthel]

You mean the 1 audacious plan they executed in over 4 years of the war to specifically damage Russia’s strategic bombing fleet. You’re somehow comparing that to the IRGC having the capacity to repeat that to bomb…data centers? And drone motherships don’t extend range much beyond 30-40 clicks beyond the FLOT. Such a ridiculous and unserious comment.

You're out of date

The Russian company KB Valkyriya reportedly presented the RD-8 mothership UAV, which reportedly uses radio channels, Starlink, or mobile networks up to a range of 150 kilometers.[7] The RD-8 mothership UAV can carry two FPV drones, each with a three-kilogram warhead and day and night cameras.

source
In the context of your original comment that I was responding to, that's enough

The data centers are not in Iraq. They are in the UAE and Saudi. They are over 100 miles from Iran/Iranian linked militias, to be generous. FPVs don’t operate at that range.

 

[aggressive-trail]

You're out of date

source
In the context of your original comment that I was responding to, that's enough

The fact that you’re quoting ISW directly quoting a Russian source with zero external verification or credibility says it all. The fact that the post is from October 2025 with no actual evidence, is the cherry on the top.

 

[Cthel]

The fact that you’re quoting ISW directly quoting a Russian source with zero external verification or credibility says it all. The fact that the post is from October 2025 with no actual evidence, is the cherry on the top.

Yes, it says that I just used the first search result.

Since you insist on hard evidence:
https://www.sofx.com/russian-shahed...rones-as-airborne-motherships-video-confirms/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidh...sia-is-launching-fpvs-from-drone-motherships/
https://www.airmobi.com/russia-develops-starlink-controlled-uav-motherships/

 

[jnv11]

Maybe I'm a bit newb in my thinking here. But besides the military threats now appearing, isn't putting big, hot data centers that drink millions of gallons of water to cool down in the middle of desert environments with water issues a stupid idea?

They have to go somewhere due to politics, legal issues, and real world latency issues. There are non-AI applications where you need a datacenter close by to serve them up with low latency. Second, far-away data centers are likely to be in the jurisdictions of governments with lax privacy laws or laws that conflict with your jurisdiction's local laws, setting you up for a legal quagmire if you want to use them.

Data centers do need to go somewhere which can solve these problems. Deserts are not ideal, but there are other considerations that force the issue.