“In the latest conflict between Iran and the coalition, the weaker side had a clear strategy to go after the other side's compute, meaning go after data centers. And of course we now realize that most data centers have not been built with conflict in mind, are not hardened, are not resilient in that respect. So this is clearly a rethink that needs to happen there.”
The Energy Gang · Climate & Energy · November 2026
Context
Asked how digital infrastructure is becoming part of the energy-security battlefield, the guest gives strikes on data centers as one example, alongside power supply for AI factories and subsea cables. The characterization of the conflict is his own.
Transcript
…true in anything. I mean, we have copper challenges. We have copper shortages. We have a lot of material or resources shortages, right? You can see that coming. You just have to want to see it. And that then allows you faster decisions on procurement, on scheduling, on resource allocation, etc.
What about the ways that data and digital technologies are themselves becoming part of the battlefield, if you like, are becoming issues for energy security? How is that developing now?
Well, I think there's a number of things that have happened now, right? One is that, and they're all interconnected. So one is that the large data centers of the, well, actually, of the future, of the present, the AI factories, need, as we all know, significant amounts of energy infrastructure, right? In order to support that, to support their energy needs. So there's a whole ecosystem around energy generation and also as a result, of course, vulnerability of disrupting that energy supply that has emerged, right? Secondly, of course, we've seen that in the latest conflict between Iran and the coalition, if you like, right? The coalition of various states, that in this case, the weaker side had a clear strategy to go after the other side's compute, meaning go after data centers, target data centers, right? And of course, we now realize that most data centers have not been built with conflict in mind, are not hardened, are not resilient in that respect. So this is clearly a rethink that needs to happen there. The third one, of course, is cables and the physical transportation infrastructure, the large cables that connect the world. And that also is…
That's very interesting. So, in other words, so resiliency crucially will depend on redundancy. As you can see, you'll need extra capacity, backup capacity. Would you also generally want to have shorter supply chains? Would you want to make sure that data storage and processing is closer to the…
Whether that actually matters or not, this is what we are going to see. Because clearly, I think there is now consensus that there will be more local cloud, regional clouds, national cloud providers, companies that decide they want to have their entire cloud infrastructure on their premises. That…
Right. So you think what, in fact, then a slower movement to the cloud as a result of this, as a result of these risks that are emerging.
More from The Energy Gang
