How the Iran war has disrupted Abu Dhabi's AI strategy

Published 27 June 2026 · tech

Abu Dhabi's ambitions to turn the United Arab Emirates into a global hub for digital infrastructure and artificial Intelligence face pressure after the Iran war

Abu Dhabi's ambitions to turn the United Arab Emirates into a global hub for digital infrastructure and artificial Intelligence face pressure after the Iran war. But the country is also known for its business resilience. When the United Arab Emirates appointed Omar Sultan Al Olama as the world's first minister of state for artificial intelligence in 2017, he promised to turn the United Arab Emirates into the world's most prepared country for AI. Only six years later, Al Olama was listed on TIME magazine's inaugural TIME100 AI list and Abu Dhabi was well underway in implementing its digital strategy. However, after the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, the UAE became one of Iran's key targets: Over the course of the war, thousands of Iranian missile and drone strikes were aimed at local offices and data centers operated by global companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. The news magazine The Conversation reported that the war also raised questions about the safety of undersea cables which are essential for data centers and other digital infrastructure. Furthermore, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, and later by the United States, has delayed hardware deliveries. Analysts point out that data centers need to be protected as critical infrastructure Image: Nic Bothma/Matrix Images/picture alliance "Data centers have long become critical infrastructure and need to be better protected just like oil refineries or desalination plants," Sebastian Sons, a senior researcher at the German think tank CARPO, told DW.

Faced with crises, UAE shows 'high level of resilience' Despite the impact of the war on the Gulf state, observers point out that not everything is different. "The political risk profile has changed, but the fundamentals haven't changed," Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told DW. "The UAE still lies at the intersection of capital flows between East and West, it still has the energy, land and political will to build AI capabilities at scale." In the past, the Gulf region has weathered different crises, from the financial crisis of the late 2000s to the COVID-19 pandemic and previous Gulf conflicts, all of which tested the Gulf business model, said Sons, adding that "during all these crises, the UAE has demonstrated a high level of resilience and found ways to reinvent itself and deal with such strategic situations." In his view, significant damage would only occur if the Iran conflict continued for a long time and the UAE couldn't find a way to adapt its business model. However, it remains to be seen in what way the UAE's global computer diplomacy strategy will pivot in the short, medium and long term. In May, a planned $1 billion mega-data-center project in Kenya was called off, Business Insider Africa reported. Academic business strategies It may well be that Abu Dhabi's AI strategy, dubbed "UAE AI Strategy 2031," is already diversified enough to withstand the Iran crisis.