Red Sea Cable Disruptions Threaten Gulf AI Ambitions as Bandwidth Demand Surges

According to TeleGeography on May 14, regional conflicts are stalling subsea cable deployment in the Red Sea, where 17 cables carry approximately 18 percent of global data traffic between Asia, Africa and Europe. A February 2024 Houthi missile attack severed three major cables and disrupted 25 percent of regional internet traffic, prompting operators to seek alternative routes. International bandwidth demand from major cloud and AI providers is expected to rise ninefold between 2025 and 2035.

Hyperscalers including Google, Meta and Amazon are aggressively building private long-haul networks to connect AI clusters, with an estimated $765 billion invested in AI-related infrastructure during 2026. Gulf governments are increasingly backing terrestrial and hybrid fibre routes through Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey to improve route diversity and data sovereignty, as cable repairs in the southern Red Sea face substantial delays.