Last month, drone strikes linked to Iran hit Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, disrupting cloud services for weeks and forcing Amazon to issue customer credits that reportedly cost the company about $150 million, according to Forbes (1).
But the financial hit wasn’t just about downtime. It exposed a bigger issue: insurance didn’t cover the damage.
“Typically, a policy excludes war. So if it’s an active war, it’s not gonna be covered,” Tom Harper, a data center insurance specialist at Gallagher, told Forbes (1).
That detail may sound like a niche corporate problem. It’s not.
The AWS facilities weren’t random targets. As geopolitical tensions escalate, data centers — the backbone of cloud computing, AI and digital services — are increasingly viewed as strategic infrastructure. They underpin communications, logistics, payments and military planning, Forbes stated (1).
In other words, these data-storing facilities also help power everything from banking apps to supply chains.
And when they go down, the effects can ripple outward quickly:
Service outages for businesses and consumers
Disruptions to payments or financial platforms
Unexpected costs passed down to customers
AWS itself reported ongoing service disruptions in the region more than a month after the attack, underscoring how long recovery can take.
Here’s the key issue: war exclusions are standard in insurance policies, not just for data centers, but across many industries.
That means when damage is tied to military conflict or geopolitical events, companies are often left to absorb the losses themselves.
For tech giants, that can mean hundreds of millions of dollars. For smaller businesses that rely on cloud infrastructure, it can mean lost revenue during outages, limited compensation for disruptions or higher insurance premiums going forward.
And ultimately, those costs tend to trickle down.
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Data centers are already expensive to build and operate. According to real estate firm JLL, the basic cost of constructing a data center (excluding equipment) is roughly $12 million per megawatt, as cited by Forbes (1).
Now, add rising security costs.
Experts say advanced security measures can add up to 5% to construction costs, while physical protections like fencing, gatehouses and vehicle barriers alone can range from $5 million to $20 million per site.
As threats evolve, so does spending. One industry executive told Forbes that demand for security is “through the roof.”
And those expenses don’t stay on corporate balance sheets forever. They can show up in different ways, from higher prices for cloud services, increased subscription fees for apps and platforms or rising costs for businesses that rely on digital infrastructure.
Which can ultimately feed into everyday consumer expenses — from streaming services to online shopping.
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence has led to huge growth in massive, centralized data centers packed with expensive hardware.
That concentration creates a new vulnerability.
As Forbes explains, the more computing power (called “compute” in the industry) that there is in one spot, the bigger the investment must be to keep it running and safe.
It also makes those facilities more attractive targets, not just for physical attacks, but for surveillance too. Experts warn that “loitering” drones can map layouts and probe networks for weaknesses before any strike happens (1).
And the risk is happening now. Earlier this month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reportedly published a list of potential targets, including facilities linked to major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle (1).
Amazon’s reported $150-million hit is a warning shot: even the world’s largest companies aren’t insulated from geopolitical risk, and neither are the systems consumers depend on.
Cloud infrastructure was already getting more expensive before these attacks, and there’s hard data behind that.
Electricity demand from data centers is surging, driven largely by AI. Gartner projects global data center electricity use will more than double by 2030, with AI-optimized servers accounting for a growing share of that demand (2).
Energy systems are under strain. A report from the International Energy Agency found data center expansion tied to AI is driving massive capital spending and raising concerns about energy affordability and system pressure (3).
Those costs are feeding into cloud pricing. Rising energy bills have forced data center operators to absorb significant increases — in some cases up to 50% over recent years — with providers responding by raising prices to protect margins (4).
Demand isn’t slowing. Cloud spending itself is climbing rapidly, with Gartner noting double-digit growth in cloud services driven by AI adoption and infrastructure expansion, alongside “higher than expected costs” for organizations trying to scale (5).
Geopolitical risk is layered in. Rising tensions are already reshaping where and how cloud infrastructure gets built. Gartner says governments and companies are increasingly investing in “sovereign cloud” (a.k.a, local, pricier computing infrastructure) to reduce geopolitical exposure — a shift that adds duplication, complexity and cost to global cloud systems (6).
Altogether, that means higher operating costs, more redundancy, more security and, ultimately, higher prices.
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Forbes (1); Gartner (2)(5)(6); International Energy Agency (3); TechCrunch (4)
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Amazon loses $150M after drones hit its data centers — and insurance won’t cover their losses. What it means for you
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