Ukrainian drones strike Sberbank's Balakovo data centre, Russia's largest

Ukrainian drones hit Russia's biggest data centre, owned by Sberbank, on 14 Oct, in attacks targeting Moscow's AI ambitions. Sberbank said all systems were operating normally, while Yandex data centres were also struck in the past week.

Ukrainian drones struck Russia's largest data centre on Wednesday (14 Oct), part of a series of attacks appearing to target Moscow's ambitions to develop artificial intelligence capabilities on a par with those of the US and China. The Balakovo data centre, owned by Sberbank, the country's largest bank and technology company, was hit after three attacks in the past week on data centres owned by Russian technology group Yandex.

"We confirm that the data processing centre was attacked. At the same time, all of Sberbank's systems and services are operating normally and without disruption," Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin told reporters. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a previously unannounced meeting on Wednesday with top officials on "information security", in which Sberbank CEO German Gref took part. The Kremlin said the meeting was not linked to the attacks.

Russia's state RIA Novosti news agency reported in 2024 that the Sberbank centre hit on Wednesday would host Russia's biggest supercomputer, scheduled to go into operation in 2027. The Yandex data centres, hit earlier, hosted all three of that company's operating supercomputers. Neither Yandex nor Sberbank has said whether supercomputers, used to train AI models, were damaged in the attacks.

Along with Yandex, its main domestic rival, Sberbank is Russia's leading developer of artificial intelligence. Both companies have invested heavily in their models but lag global leaders in the US and China by up to nine months, according to Sberbank's own estimates, partly due to Western sanctions that hinder Russia's access to the most advanced hardware. "It's clear what difficulties we face when purchasing modern graphics processing units. Both we and Yandex suffer from this," Gref said on 29 Sep.

Sberbank is in talks to buy chips from Chinese makers, but Vedyakhin told Reuters on 3 Jun that US chipmaker Nvidia's monopoly on its CUDA software platform, an AI industry standard, is an even greater problem. Yandex said previously that its supercomputers operated on Nvidia A100 chips, a model launched in 2020 and since succeeded by more advanced H100 chips. Sberbank's most advanced supercomputer, Christofari Neo, ranked 167th in the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, is based on Nvidia A100 chips, while Yandex's Chervonenkis supercomputer ranks 101st.

IT expert Mikhail Klimarev told Reuters it could take a long time to replace the chips due to Western sanctions, while damage to the supercomputers could set back the Russian AI industry, which already suffered from sanctions. "The equipment is being imported, but it's done at a high cost, through indirect routes. First, you need to negotiate so that someone is willing to sell it to you and is not afraid of sanctions," he said.

Some commentators compared the lack of reported disruption at state-controlled Sberbank with Yandex, whose taxi and food delivery units had reported disruptions, saying it showed Sberbank's centres are better protected. "This is a great example of what a business owner can do to protect their assets," wrote military blogger Alexander Kots. Under an August decree by Putin, the state can take over administration of poorly protected facilities.

The Sberbank site is located close to the Balakovo nuclear power plant, which the data centre uses as an energy source, and the Saratov hydroelectric power plant. No damage was reported to either plant. Ukraine says it is responding to Russian attacks on its own data sites.

Russia's digital development ministry said this week it was in talks with the military on protecting the data centres, while some lawmakers called for them to be moved underground. "We need a so-called Doomsday data vault," Valery Yermakov, deputy CEO of state-controlled Rostelecom, told a conference in Moscow.