Iran War Widens as US Tech Giants Shut Offices
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — The armed conflict in the Middle East has widened after a joint attack by the United States and Israel on Iran prompted retaliation in the region. Its impact has not only been felt in the defence and energy sectors but has also directly disrupted the operations of major American technology giants.
Several global technology companies, including Nvidia, Amazon, and Alphabet—the parent company of Google—have uniformly closed offices and implemented remote work for staff in the Middle East.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, in an internal memo, said the Nvidia office in Dubai would be closed temporarily and all employees were asked to work from home.
The company’s crisis management team is reported to be working around the clock to ensure staff safety, including around 6,000 employees based in Israel.
Israel is Nvidia’s largest research and development base outside the United States, particularly since the 2019 acquisition of Mellanox for US$7.13 billion.
Air travel disruptions have become an immediate consequence of the escalation. More than 11,000 flights in the Middle East have been cancelled since the weekend, according to Cirium data.
Meanwhile, dozens of Google employees were reportedly stranded in Dubai after attending a conference for the company’s cloud unit. Dubai has long been a major hub for Google’s cloud operations and sales in the Middle East and North Africa.
The company said the situation was evolving rapidly and that the primary focus was the safety and welfare of staff in the region, CNBC International reported on Wednesday (4 March 2026).
Amazon Data Centres Hit by Drone Attack
Meanwhile, Amazon is facing a more serious impact. Two data centres in the United Arab Emirates were reportedly struck directly by drone attacks, while a facility in Bahrain was damaged by a nearby strike.
Structural damage, power outages, and water damage have left these facilities unable to operate.
Several Amazon Web Services (AWS) offerings, including virtual servers and databases, are still experiencing disruptions.
AWS has even urged customers to back up data and consider migrating workloads to other regions.
Amazon now requires all corporate staff in the Middle East to work remotely and follow local government guidance.
The widening conflict underscores how the Middle East has become a key node in the global technology industry. Dubai and Tel Aviv are not merely branch offices but hubs for cloud, AI research, and internationally scaled data infrastructure.
With security conditions deemed unpredictable, US technology companies are preparing to face broader operational risks, ranging from disruptions to the digital supply chain to potential relocation of strategic infrastructure.