The Gulf’s AI Boom Has an Undersea Cable Problem

Gulf states are pouring money into AI and cloud infrastructure, but their connectivity still depends on a few fragile undersea cable routes.

Those cables run through volatile chokepoints like the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, where conflict and cuts have already raised disruption risks.

Because most international data traffic flows through undersea cables, any outage could hit internet service, raise costs, and slow the region’s AI ambitions.

The risk matters for hyperscalers and Gulf economies alike, as it could undermine plans to export compute and cloud capacity.