Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, a major data center developer has suspended all project investments in the region after one of its facilities was damaged by an Iranian missile or drone strike.
The decision comes as the ongoing Iran war forces Silicon Valley investors and tech companies to reconsider a trillion-dollar initiative to expand AI and cloud data center infrastructure across Gulf countries.
Pure Data Centre Group Halts Middle East Expansion
The affected data center is owned by Pure Data Centre Group, a London-based company currently operating or developing over 1 gigawatt of data center capacity across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Gary Wojtaszek, CEO of Pure DC, told CNBC that the company is exercising extreme caution in the current climate. “No one’s going to run into a burning building, so to speak,” Wojtaszek stated. “No one’s going to put in new additional capital at scale to do anything until everything settles down.”
Escalating Conflict Disrupts Tech Infrastructure Plans
Developers are already absorbing the financial burden of uninsurable war damage resulting from the conflict, which began with a US-Israeli strike on Iran on February 28.
In response, Iran has primarily targeted shipping routes to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz trade corridor while also striking US military bases and energy infrastructure throughout the Gulf region.
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