--- title: "Iran Declares Google and Microsoft to Be Military Targets" description: "There's a new target in 21st century warfare: US tech companies." date: "2026-03-13" modified: "2026-03-13" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/iran-google-microsoft-targets" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Computers" - "Computing" - "Devices" - "Internet Of Things" - "Military" - "Robots and Machines" - "Science & Energy" --- # Iran Declares Google and Microsoft to Be Military Targets ![Reflection of the word "Google" in white paint on a wet, dark surface with red lighting accents. The letters appear distorted due to the water's ripples.]() *Michael Nguyen / NurPhoto via Getty Images / Futurism* There's a new target in 21st century warfare: US tech companies. According [to *Al Jazeera*](), Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps made the announcement following attacks on the country by US and Israeli military forces. In retaliation to a specific strike on an Iranian bank — which reportedly killed several civilian employees — Iranian military officials declared that they would now count US- and Israeli-linked financial and tech institutions among their targets. "As the scope of the regional war expands to infrastructure war, the scope of Iran's legitimate targets expands," Iran's *Tasnim News Agency* announced, according to *Al Jazeera*. In a document viewed by *Al Jazeera*, the IRGC listed a number of US tech companies as "Iran's new targets," including Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia, and Oracle, as well as a cloud computing companies in Israel and several Gulf countries. "The Americans should await our countermeasure and our painful response," a spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, the IRGC's unified combatant command declared. The decision to declare open season on tech offices is extreme, to be sure, but it's not exactly irrational from a military point of view. Big tech companies have become a core component of the US military apparatus, providing [surveillance platforms](), [AI targeting capabilities](), and [network infrastructure]() — to say nothing of the Pentagon's extensive collection of [lethal]() [connected]() [hardware](). A sign that Iran's not bluffing: the announcement comes after its drones inflicted "structural damage" on three [Amazon Web Services facilities]() in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Those strikes are believed to be the first instance of an adversary targeting US corporate tech facilities in an attack — a sign of the strange new battlefield as commercial tech infrastructure is now visibly embedded throughout the US military apparatus. **More on Iran:** *[Toxic Sludge Raining Down on Iran After Bombing of Oil Facilities]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()