# Lightning AI (لايتنينج إيه آي)

> Lightning AI is currently blocked in Syria, as of 2026-08-10.

- Status: blocked
- Outreach: No Response
- Company: [Lightning AI](https://unblocksyria.com/en/companies/lightning-ai.md)
- Categories: AI Infrastructure & Platforms, AI Coding, Cloud Hosting, Data & ML Platforms, IDEs & Code Editors
- Official site: https://lightning.ai
- Community votes: 5
- Last updated: 2026-08-10
- Page: https://unblocksyria.com/en/services/lightning-ai

## About

Cloud AI development platform for building, training, and deploying machine learning models with GPU compute, notebooks, and PyTorch Lightning

## Activity summary

Blocked in Syria. A community volunteer first contacted the company in December 2025, which acknowledged the request, but after several follow-ups the company formally declined in March 2026, saying it could not enable access in the region at this time. Further follow-ups in April and May 2026 went unanswered.

## Community reports

- 2026-06-05 — No Response. No response received from Lightning AI despite repeated follow-ups. After formally declining the Syria access request on 18 March 2026, the company has not replied to follow-up emails sent on 14 April and 3 May requesting reconsideration.
- 2026-05-03 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer sent a brief follow-up nudge to Lightning AI's support team at support@lightning.ai (via the Crisp platform), three weeks after the previous follow-up that asked the company to specify which policy or regulation prevents them from serving users in Syria. No response had been received in the interim. The message reads simply: «would appreciate a response here.»
- 2026-04-14 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer sent a follow-up to Lightning AI's support team at support@lightning.ai (via the Crisp platform), nearly a month after the company's formal decline on March 18. The message requested a specific explanation of which policy, law, or regulation is preventing Lightning AI from providing its services to users in Syria, pressing for a substantive legal basis beyond the generic decline.
- 2026-03-18 — Declined. Lightning AI's support team formally declined the Syria access request via natalie@lightning.on.crisp.email, stating: "Unfortunately, we are not able to enable access in this region at this time." The company noted they are "exploring long-term solutions that could allow us to support more regions safely in the future." This marks a definitive decline after months of outreach: initial contact in December 2025, a human acknowledgment, and three follow-ups over three months with no substantive progress.
- 2026-03-14 — Follow-up Sent. A third follow-up was sent to Lightning AI at support@lightning.ai, nearly three months after their initial acknowledgment in December 2025 with no further response. The message reiterated the compliance review request, referenced the OFAC sanctions lift, noted that companies including Kaggle and GitHub have already restored access, and expressed urgency given the extended period without a substantive response.
- 2026-02-19 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer sent a second follow-up to Lightning AI asking for an update on the Syria access request. No response had been received since Lightning AI's initial December 2025 acknowledgment that they would evaluate the matter. The volunteer also CC'd corporateaffairs@unblocksyria.com for tracking.
- 2026-01-23 — Follow-up Sent. A community volunteer sent a follow-up to Lightning AI referencing the December 2025 OFAC sanctions lift and EU sanctions removal. The message provided updated information including official U.S. Treasury documentation and resources from unblocksyria.com, noting that several companies had already restored access for Syrian users.
- 2025-12-29 — Company Responded. Lightning AI's support team member responded to the Syria access request stating: "Thank you for sending this. We will evaluate and get back to you." This indicates the company acknowledged the request and committed to an internal review.
- 2025-12-25 — Contacted Company. A community volunteer contacted Lightning AI via their support system (Crisp) requesting that the platform be made available to users in Syria. The request noted that users are currently blocked from accessing the platform, cited the recent lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria, and referenced that companies like GitHub had already restored their services in Syria.

## Context

These are geo-restrictions the companies applied themselves, not filtering by Syrian ISPs and not a legal requirement. US and EU sanctions on Syria were lifted in 2025. See https://unblocksyria.com/llms.txt for the regulatory summary and https://unblocksyria.com/en/about for citations to the specific orders and regulations.

## Machine-readable

- JSON: https://api.unblocksyria.com/services/lightning-ai?locale=en
- Timeline JSON: https://api.unblocksyria.com/services/lightning-ai/timeline?locale=en
- HTML: https://unblocksyria.com/en/services/lightning-ai
- Other languages: https://unblocksyria.com/ar/services/lightning-ai.md, https://unblocksyria.com/ku/services/lightning-ai.md