Iran Threatens American Tech Companies in US-Israel War

Iran is threatening several major American tech companies as possible targets in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks. 

Amazon, Palantir, Microsoft, and Oracle were named by Tasnim News Agency, a semi-official organization linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a social media post in March, which was titled “enemy technological infrastructure: Iran’s new goals in the region”. 

‘Iran’s Legitimate Targets Are Expanding’ 

Iran has already hit data centers in the Middle East, including Amazon facilities in two countries, according to CBS News. 

“With the expansion of regional war dimensions into infrastructure, cyberwarfare, and scope, Iran’s legitimate targets are gradually expanding,” the Tasnim post said. 

It is understood that the companies named by Iran have data centers, cloud infrastructure, and offices across the region, including in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel. 

Amazon Web Services said earlier last month that drone strikes from Iran had damaged two of its UAE facilities, and another drone landed close to its Bahrain site, damaging infrastructure.

In a service update posted on March 2, AWS wrote: “In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure. 

“These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage.”

In an updated post the following day, AWS said that updates would be delivered directly to affected customers through the AWS Personal Health Dashboard. 

How Is Salesforce Impacted? 

The clearest link is that Salesforce’s Hyperforce runs on AWS, and the conflict is already having some second-order effects. Under the subheading ‘Hyperforce’ In documentation, published March 31, Salesforce states that, because of the “ongoing situation in the Middle East”, new trial org sign ups and Scratch Orgs from Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, or the UAE will be routed to a location in the European Union. 

Additionally, Customer Data of commercial Customer orgs in Israel will be temporarily backed up to a location in the EU “until the crisis has resolved,” Salesforce says. 

If the Iran war expands in scope, Salesforce appears to be less exposed than those companies that own the facilities being hit, but there is nonetheless a degree of partnership, reliance, and integration across several verticals between most major tech giants – so the risk is not zero. 

Salesforce’s link with Amazon appears to be the strongest, with the companies declaring a significant expansion of their partnership in 2023 – and AWS and Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud) working together to unify data and AI models. 

In 2019, Salesforce named Microsoft Azure as its public cloud provider for Marketing Cloud, with integration for Sales and Service Cloud with Microsoft Teams. Then, in 2024, Salesforce’s partnership with Microsoft expanded to enable zero copy Data Cloud integrations using Azure.

Oracle and Palantir appear to have a very light connection to Salesforce, apart from some sporadic superficial overlap.

In terms of the company’s offices in the region, Salesforce lists three sites in Israel, and one in the UAE on its locations webpage. The company also announced the establishment of a regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia in November 2025. 

Final Thoughts 

Iran’s retaliatory strikes throughout the Middle East will likely affect Salesforce indirectly, though not critically. But, zooming out for a minute, the conflict is already affecting the global economy as a whole, with the Strait of Hormuz – through which one-fifth of global oil normally passes – being blockaded by Iran. 

Most importantly, on a human level, 3,519 people have been killed in Iran since the war began – including 1,598 civilians, of whom at least 244 were children, according to the US-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA). Whatever the implications for global profit margins for megacorporations, this should always be at the forefront of our thoughts when discussing this tragedy.