The Gulf's AI Ambitions Hinge on Fragile Cables

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have invested billions in AI infrastructure, aiming to export compute capacity like oil. But their plans depend on a handful of undersea cables running through volatile waterways. These cables carry 95% of international data traffic, and for the Gulf, concentration is the problem: most connectivity to Europe and the US goes through the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

In 2025, two cables in the Red Sea were cut, degrading internet across the Gulf for days and causing an estimated $3.5 billion in lost services. That was before the AI rollout accelerated. Now, hyperscalers demand the same resilience they have on transatlantic routes, which typically use four or five physically separate paths. The Gulf, by contrast, remains heavily dependent on a narrow set of routes.

Hyperscalers Force a Rethink

"Hyperscalers and regional carriers are pushing diversification because their requirements have moved beyond bandwidth. They now need multiple independent paths, predictable latency, and survivability during geopolitical stress," says Imad Atwi, partner at Strategy& Middle East. Bertrand Clesca, partner at Pioneer Consulting, adds: "Hyperscalers now want similar route diversity across the Middle East, both for Gulf-Europe connectivity and for Europe-Asia traffic transiting the region."

The Gulf is responding with a multilayered strategy. The first layer connects Gulf landing stations via terrestrial fiber corridors through Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Oman, extending to Europe and Asia via Jordan and the Levant. The second layer introduces new subsea-terrestrial systems bypassing chokepoints around Egypt and Bab el-Mandeb. The third creates northern overland corridors through Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

New Corridors: Syria and Iraq

Saudi Arabia's Stc Group is investing $800 million in SilkLink, reviving the JADI route (Jeddah, Amman, Damascus, Istanbul) that was severed during Syria's civil war. Terrestrial systems like this can support up to 144 fiber pairs, compared to 24 in typical subsea cables. But they are above ground and vulnerable to physical disruption.

A consortium of Iraqi and Emirati companies is building the $700 million WorldLink cable, which goes underwater in the Strait of Hormuz from UAE to Iraq, then overland to Turkey. "Projects such as WorldLink and SilkLink are strategically important because they create additional East-West connectivity corridors that reduce reliance on maritime chokepoints," says Carl Sykes of Neptune P2P Group.

Satellite Backup, But No Replacement

Satellite connectivity is gaining interest for redundancy. Satellites can't be sabotaged easily, but they carry far less data and have higher latency. "Satellite services continue to play an important supporting role for redundancy and continuity planning, but modern economies still depend on resilient fiber infrastructure," Sykes adds.

The Bottom Line

The Gulf cannot replace decades of undersea cable investment overnight. But it is among the first regions to recognize cross-border connectivity as both a strategic asset and a vulnerability. How it responds will shape how other AI-driven economies approach connectivity resilience.

What Developers Should Do Now

  • If you're deploying AI workloads in the Gulf, ask your cloud provider about route diversity and redundancy SLAs.
  • Monitor cable cut risks; consider multi-region failover across different physical paths.
  • For edge cases, evaluate satellite backup for low-bandwidth control plane traffic.