Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps publicly designated 18 American technology and defense companies — among them Nvidia $NVDA, Apple $AAPL, Microsoft $MSFT, Google $GOOGL, and Meta $META — as valid military objectives, announcing that strikes against their Middle Eastern operations could begin as early as Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tehran time (12:30 p.m. E.T.).
The IRGC broadcast the warning through a Guard-linked Telegram channel and the semi-official Tasnim news service, framing the targeting as retaliation for what it described as American and Israeli assassination operations against Iranian leadership. "From now on, for every assassination, an American company will be destroyed," the IRGC said in the post.
Beyond the headline names, the Guard's list extended to Cisco $CSCO, HP $HPQ, Intel $INTC, Oracle $ORCL, IBM $IBM, Dell $DELL, Palantir $PLTR, JPMorgan $JPM Chase, Tesla $TSLA, GE, and Boeing $BA alongside two Gulf-based firms: G42, Abu Dhabi's prominent AI company, and Spire Solutions, a Dubai-based cybersecurity provider.
The Guard's warning urged employees at all listed companies to vacate their offices without delay, and separately called on residents within a one-kilometer radius of those facilities throughout the region to evacuate. The advisory indicated that the intended targets are the companies' infrastructure across the Middle East, rather than facilities inside the U.S.
The IRGC said the companies were designated because of their alleged role in enabling the killings of Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Pakpour, according to Time. "Since the main element in designing and tracking terror targets are American ICT and AI companies," the IRGC said, "the main institutions effective in terrorist operations will be our legitimate targets."
Intel issued a statement confirming it has activated protective measures for regional employees and facilities, describing employee safety as its "number one priority" and adding that it is "taking steps to safeguard and support our workers and facilities in the Middle East." Neither Microsoft, Google, nor JPMorgan provided a statement in response to requests for comment.
The latest threat builds on a pattern of escalation: Iranian forces previously targeted Amazon $AMZN Web Services data infrastructure across the Gulf in early March, triggering widespread service disruptions for digital platforms throughout the UAE and surrounding countries. Some American companies had already asked Gulf-based employees to work remotely ahead of this latest escalation.
American technology companies have aggressively expanded their physical footprint across the Middle East in recent years, drawn by relatively inexpensive energy and ample land for large-scale AI and cloud development. The Gulf facilities now threatened represent billions of dollars in cloud and AI investment.
As the war stretches into its second month, the economic damage is quickly accumulating, darkening the global economic picture.
Iran's threat comes as both sides send mixed signals on the possibility of ending the conflict, which began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Trump publicly stated his expectation that American troops would be withdrawn from Iran within the coming weeks, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the conflict's endpoint was approaching. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. would continue "negotiating with bombs" while working out a deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that while he is in contact with U.S. officials, Iran has not responded to a 15-point ceasefire proposal. "We do not have any faith that negotiations with the U.S. will yield any results," he said. "The trust level is at zero."
CSIS data indicate that Iranian forces have launched in excess of 3,000 projectiles — drones and missiles combined — against targets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait since the conflict began. Brent crude prices have climbed above $100 a barrel since the war started, and U.S. gas prices exceeded $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.