Iran has struck Amazon data centers and infrastructure associated with Google, Microsoft, Oracle, NVIDIA and IBM in the UAE and Israel. Offices of major U.S. and regional banks were hit. The IRGC advised civilians in advance not to come within one kilometer of them. The Dubai International Financial Center was also one of the key targets of the attacks, which led to a temporary paralysis of business activity.
Damage to Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft nodes disrupted transactions and cloud computing for thousands of local companies. Due to physical damage to offices and cyberattacks, major financial hubs such as DIFC (Dubai) and ADGM (Abu Dhabi) were partially paralyzed.
Many companies closed offices in the region for security reasons. The head of the Dubai Statistics Center estimated the direct loss of business activity in the city at $2.8 billion. Between March 11 and 14, the world’s largest companies (including Google, Citi, HSBC, Deloitte, PwC, Microsoft and NVIDIA) began mass evacuation of employees from their offices in Dubai or transferring them to remote work mode.
BBC analysts call it a shattering of the myth of the Persian Gulf as a “safe haven” for global capital. Investors are beginning to revise their portfolios, moving assets to safer jurisdictions.
