UAE minister calls datacenters ‘more important than roads’, unveils new ‘hiding rule’
The UAE government is restricting public information regarding the locations of data centers, citing them as critical infrastructure vulnerable to military threats. Minister Omar Sultan Al Olama emphasized that these facilities are now more vital to national security than traditional physical infrastructure like roads.
Why it matters
This reflects a growing global trend where digital infrastructure is being treated as a primary national security asset, necessitating new protection strategies.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will overhaul its regulatory framework for data centres and halt public disclosure of their physical locations to shield them from military threats, according to comments reported by The Next Web of a session from Salesforce's annual event Dreamforce 2026. Speaking alongside Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Omar Sultan Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, warned that computing hubs have evolved into critical infrastructure that requires heightened protection.Al Olama said that data centres have become prime targets because our whole lives exist on connected devices, arguing that they are now more important than bridges, roads, or tunnels.
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