AWS investing $8.5-B in building EU ‘sovereign cloud’ in Germany

WASHINGTON, United States — Amazon’s cloud computing division will invest 7.8 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in building a “sovereign cloud” center in Germany, the company announced Wednesday, as the EU seeks to harbor the European data on domestic servers.

The company said that the first sovereign cloud complex will be set up in the German state of Brandenburg, and will be operational by the end of 2025.

Some European companies and public agencies have been reluctant to resort to cloud computing, worried that the data of Europeans would transfer to other jurisdictions, notably the United States.

The new cloud system is intended to address these concerns and obey Europe’s strict data privacy rules.

‘Digital sovereignty’

Amazon Web Services’ European Sovereign Cloud project, announced last year, will allow customers to maintain data residency within the EU, with infrastructure wholly located within Europe and operated independently from other regions in the world.

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“This investment reinforces our commitment to offer customers the most advanced set of sovereignty controls, privacy safeguards, and security features available in the cloud,” said Max Peterson, vice president of Sovereign Cloud at AWS.

European leaders have been pushing for so-called “digital sovereignty,” the idea the EU should be in control of its own data and technology in a sector that is dominated by US tech giants AWS, Microsoft and Google.

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Those three companies still account for almost 80 percent of the public cloud market on the old continent, according to European Commission data.

The concern for independence has only grown with the advent of AI, with the mass processing of data becoming a crucial component of providing ChatGPT-style technology to companies worldwide.