tech
April 6, 2026
Iran threatens to destroy OpenAI's Stargate data centre in Abu Dhabi
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has released a video threatening “complete and utter annihilation” of OpenAI’s $30bn Stargate AI campus in Abu Dhabi, singling out the facility by name for the first time and warning it will strike if the US proceeds with threatened attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure.
TL;DR
- Iran's IRGC has threatened to annihilate OpenAI's $30 billion Stargate AI campus in Abu Dhabi.
- The threat is conditional on the US attacking Iranian civilian infrastructure, such as power plants and desalination facilities.
- This is the first time the IRGC has named a specific facility for threatened destruction.
- Recent Iranian attacks on commercial data centers in the UAE and Bahrain set a precedent for targeting such infrastructure.
- The Stargate campus is a joint venture involving OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, financed and built by UAE company G42.
- If completed, Stargate UAE would house a massive amount of AI compute capacity, potentially making it the single largest concentration outside the US.
- A successful strike or prolonged threat to Stargate could shift AI infrastructure development away from the Middle East.
- The conflict highlights the increasing intertwining of cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, and strategic concerns.
- OpenAI has not publicly commented on the threat.
- Ceasefire negotiations between Iran and the US remain deadlocked as of April 6, 2026.
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