Dominic Williams has suggested that the first ICP cloud engines should be located in the Middle East after drone strikes damaged multiple Amazon Web Services facilities in the Gulf.
Dom made the comment following reports that Iranian drone attacks hit two AWS data centres in the United Arab Emirates and a third site in Bahrain. The strikes disrupted cloud services across the region and affected banking systems, payment platforms and other online services that rely on AWS infrastructure.
Iran reportedly claimed the facilities were targeted because the U.S. military uses AWS infrastructure for AI intelligence systems. Iranian state-linked reports specifically referred to Anthropic’s Claude model, although there has been no public confirmation from AWS or Anthropic that Claude was directly involved in military operations linked to the attacks. AWS has not publicly verified those claims.
The incident has raised wider questions around the risks facing major cloud providers as artificial intelligence systems become increasingly tied to military, government and critical infrastructure projects.
For years, cloud computing has been presented as something distant and decentralised, but the attacks showed that physical infrastructure remains vulnerable. Data centres still sit in real-world locations, depend on power systems and transport links, and can become targets during conflict.
Dom’s comment appears to reflect a growing view among some blockchain supporters that decentralised infrastructure could offer an alternative to relying on a handful of centralised cloud providers. The Internet Computer network has been positioning itself as a decentralised cloud platform that can run applications, data storage and AI services directly on-chain.
While Dom did not expand on how ICP cloud engines in the Middle East would work, the timing of the comment points to a wider debate around where digital infrastructure should be based and how it should be protected.
The AWS disruption also highlighted the limits of regional cloud redundancy. AWS confirmed that two UAE facilities were directly struck, while the Bahrain site suffered damage from a nearby drone strike. The company said structural damage, power failures and water damage from fire suppression systems all contributed to a prolonged recovery process.
Some analysts believe the attacks could become a turning point for the cloud sector, especially in the Gulf, where governments and tech firms have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure. Questions are now being asked about whether future projects will need stronger physical protections, wider geographic spread or more decentralised systems to reduce risk.
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