Several employees in DIFC we spoke to told us their offices were evacuated early yesterday, shortly after a drone fell near Dubai International Airport, and as Iran was reported to be targeting US banks and tech firms with Israeli links. Reports citing Iranian state-linked media suggest these include Google, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and Nvidia.

Two employees at different firms — a financial services company and a wealth management firm — said they were told to work remotely until the end of the week, while unconfirmed reports suggest that Standard Chartered and Citi have also evacuated their offices. A memo to employees from Citi reportedly said to work remotely until further notice, while Goldman Sachs was separately quoted by Bloomberg as saying that “the decision to evacuate three of our buildings in the UAE was made out of an abundance of caution.”

Standard Chartered didn’t confirm or deny the news, with its UAE CEO Rola Abu Manneh saying that its “banking services in the UAE continue without interruption … [but the firm has] extended work-from-home for many of our teams as a precautionary step.”

Many in DIFC had just returned to the office this week, after working remotely for the past week. The move for some to evacuate one of the UAE’s two major financial hubs and revert to remote work is a big step backward as the government continues to bang the “we are safe” drum, presenting a calm facade for both businesses and residents alike — even down to the change of the jarring safety alert sound that jolts our phones overnight to a softer chime.

Earlier this week, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum met with 300 business leaders at The Majlis in a bid to discuss business continuity and deliver the same message the government has been sending all along: “The UAE is strong [...] and we will emerge stronger.”

Why this matters

Tech and finance firms are arguably the lifeblood of Dubai, with dozens of multinational firms having set up their headquarters in the emirate in recent years. US banks and financial services firms, as well as Big Tech firms like those allegedly mentioned by Iran, have significant operations in the UAE and have pledged bns of investments in the country.

BACKGROUND- Microsoft committed over USD 7.9 bn in data centers in the UAE last year, while Oracle and Nvidia are working on the massive 5 GW US-UAE AI data center cluster in Abu Dhabi, which had been set to open this year.

What to watch

With the Eid break coming up next week, we don’t expect a mass return to offices anytime soon. Some are taking up their companies’ “work from abroad” policies, others are leaving in the initial panic-induced exodus, and others are bridging vacations with Eid. As a result, expect the normally packed DIFC and ADGM to remain somewhat bare until after Eid and until the coming weeks show whether there was any truth to Iran’s recent threats.

Tags: