Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has issued a warning on Tuesday that it intends to launch attacks on more than a dozen American companies in the Middle East starting on Wednesday. This action is in response to the killing of Iranian citizens during the ongoing conflict with the US and Israel. The targeted companies, including Apple, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Tesla, and Boeing, are accused by the IRGC of facilitating US military targeting operations.
The IRGC has advised employees of these US firms to evacuate and urged civilians in the region to steer clear. This warning posted on the IRGC’s Telegram channel marks an escalation of threats by Iran against American commercial infrastructure following the initial attack by the US and Israel on Tehran on February 28.
On March 1, Iranian drones reportedly struck two Amazon Web Services data centers and caused damage to another in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. This incident marked the first confirmed attack on American-owned hyperscale cloud infrastructure. The attacks led to crashes of banking sites, payment processors, and consumer services across the region as redundancies meant to prevent outages were disabled.
Earlier this month, the IRGC-associated Tasnim News Agency released a list of 29 regional offices and data centers operated by major companies like Amazon, Google, IBM, Nvidia, and Palantir. These firms were accused of supporting US military and intelligence activities. The IRGC announced via Telegram that the targeted companies should brace for attacks commencing after 8 pm on April 1 in Tehran.
Following this announcement, most of the companies mentioned did not provide an immediate response to WIRED’s request for comment. Notably, Google, Microsoft, and JP Morgan declined to comment. The Gulf region holds billions of dollars in US technology investments with American tech giants betting heavily on it becoming a prominent AI development hub.
The IRGC considers these civilian hardware and software providers as ‘legitimate targets,’ holding them accountable for supplying the technology that facilitated joint US-Israeli attacks resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the conflict’s outset. These threats underscore the US Defense Department’s dependency on commercial vendors operating in the region.
For example, Palantir is involved in building data architecture for Project Maven, a Pentagon artificial intelligence program used for processing drone and satellite imagery to identify air-strike targets. The defense contractor also maintains an office in Abu Dhabi.
In response to IRGC threats, the US military conducted airstrikes throughout March targeting IRGC drone networks essential for carrying out attacks. Recent footage released by US Central Command shows air strikes destroying mobile launchers. However, airstrikes have recently decreased as the US temporarily halted strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure to explore potential peace negotiations with Tehran.
During this period of fluctuating operational activities, reports suggest that the Pentagon is contemplating deploying up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East to enhance its strategic options prior to a potential ground invasion.
In the month following Khamenei’s assassination, around 2,000 Iranians and at least 13 US service members have lost their lives. The conflict has expanded across various regions with Iranian retaliatory strikes hitting targets in Israel, Gulf states, and Iraq.
The Strait of Hormuz—a crucial shipping route between Iran and the UAE and Oman—has been effectively closed for weeks due to threats from Iran leading to disruptions in global shipments of oil and other goods.
This report includes contributions from Dana Alomar and Carla Sertin.