U.S. tech companies are ramping up lobbying of government officials at home and further afield amid the Iran war, as they look to defend their interests and map out contingency plans, industry insiders told CNBC.
Conflict in the Middle East has thrown the global business sector into disarray, with oil prices skyrocketing and supply chains heavily disrupted. In the tech industry, assets in the region have become military targets and analysts have predicted shortages in key materials needed for the AI infrastructure buildout.
“U.S. tech firms are actively engaging both U.S. diplomats in the Middle East and regional counterparts,” as well as officials in the White House and Pentagon, Sean Evins, partner at strategic communications consultancy Kekst CNC, told CNBC.
He pointed to clients in Big Tech, as well as the data center and semiconductor sectors, as increasing lobbying efforts, but declined to share specific names as the information is confidential.
Those clients’ risk exposure is now physical as well as commercial, he added. “Critical undersea cables, public sector cloud, data centers and enterprise systems are embedded in Gulf economies physically and financially. Any instability quickly starts to threaten contracts and, ultimately, revenue.”
A White House spokesperson told CNBC that President Donald Trump had “always been clear about temporary disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury.”
They added that the administration has “been working hand in glove with industry leaders not just to mitigate these disruptions, but to continue laying the groundwork for America’s long-term economic resurgence.”
Risk to infrastructure and markets
Tech companies have directly come into the crosshairs as the Iran war has spiraled into a regional conflict.
Apps and digital services in the United Arab Emirates reported outages following drone strikes on Amazon Web Services’ data centers in the country in March. At the start of April, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened attacks on a swath of U.S. tech companies with operations in the Middle East, including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Google.
Second-order effects are also being felt. Exports of helium, a key material in chipmaking and other manufacturing processes, have already been significantly curtailed by the fighting. Experts have also warned that a prolonged conflict would throw uncertainty over future data center and AI infrastructure projects in the region.
Mehdi Paryavi, CEO of U.S.-based think tank the International Data Center Authority (IDCA), told CNBC that he’s aware of tech companies engaging U.S. officials to lobby for an end to the conflict.
“Tech companies are extremely concerned about this conflict as peace is a key requirement for building data centers, cloud services and AI factories,” he said.
“At a base level, what these companies want is for the war to stop becoming a risk to infrastructure, markets and systems,” Evins said.
“They also want their people safe,” he added. “They are looking for a known operating environment. Tensions can exist, but a ceasefire, backchannel talks or even a frozen conflict is preferable to ongoing unpredictability.”
Evins told CNBC he’s seeing less concern from tech companies about legislative outcomes, which is what would be considered traditional lobbying, and more focus on risk exposure as a company.
“They are pushing for clear deterrence against attacks on commercial assets, and firm commitments from the U.S. and other governments to defend those assets,” he added. “There is a real effort to ensure the conflict doesn’t spill over into critical infrastructure.”
