Nvidia and memory chipmakers stand to gain as data center attacks reshape AI infrastructure demand

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Nvidia, chipmakers gain as AI demand shifts

Highlights

Ukrainian drone strikes in early October disabled three Yandex data centers using 3,776 Nvidia A100 chips worth $15 million to $57 million in accelerators alone.
Physical threats to cloud infrastructure, including March attacks on AWS UAE and Bahrain sites, are driving cloud providers to expand redundancy and capital spending on AI servers.
Rising backup capacity needs are expected to boost demand and pricing power for Nvidia and memory chipmakers through at least fiscal 2028, while firms like Nebius Group continue significant AI hardware purchases.

Drone strikes expose data center vulnerability

As reported by Weiss Ratings, Ukrainian drone attacks in early October knocked three Yandex data centers offline and disabled the Russian company’s AI supercomputers, highlighting how cloud infrastructure is becoming a military target.

The strikes hit Yandex facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir over four days, with Sasovo and Vladimir housing the company’s key AI systems. Based on Yandex’s published specifications, the three supercomputers use 3,776 Nvidia A100 chips. At cited replacement values of about $4,000 used to $15,000 new per chip, the accelerators alone represent roughly $15 million to $57 million, while full server systems and associated infrastructure push the broader hardware bill above $100 million.

The operational problem is larger than the immediate damage because Russia cannot freely replace Nvidia hardware after the company halted sales to the country in March 2022. The article says Yandex is left with costly gray-market purchases, Chinese alternatives such as Huawei AI chips, or a slower rebuilding process that risks further setbacks in the AI race.

Backup capacity could lift chip demand

The attacks add to evidence that major cloud sites now face direct physical risk, increasing pressure on operators to build redundancy across more locations. The article also points to March strikes on Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as another sign that data centers are no longer treated as untouchable infrastructure.

That shift is likely to raise capital spending on additional sites, servers and reserve computing capacity, a dynamic that could benefit Nvidia even if lost Russian demand itself is immaterial relative to the company’s roughly $303 billion in revenue over the past year. Weiss Ratings argues that more contingency buying would hit a supply chain that is already tight, reinforcing pricing power for advanced chip suppliers through at least Nvidia’s fiscal year ending in early 2028, based on comments cited from the company’s finance chief.

The article also identifies memory chipmakers as a potentially larger opportunity because every backup server build requires additional memory alongside GPUs. It further highlights Nebius Group, the former Dutch parent separated from Yandex’s Russian business in 2024, as a continuing buyer of AI hardware after reporting strong revenue growth and attracting backing from Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia.

Our earlier report on the U.S. AI data center buildout highlighted how rapid expansion plans are running into higher financing costs, construction delays, and power constraints. It noted that only a fraction of proposed projects are viewed as truly credible, while local opposition and grid limitations add further uncertainty about how fast computing capacity can scale without eroding investor confidence.

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