The Scaleway Manifesto for Data & AI Sovereignty in Europe
The era of compromise is over
Since the emergence of the cloud in 2006, European organizations have increasingly concentrated their cloud usage with American hyperscalers, drawn by the promise of rapid innovation, global reach, and massive scalability. According to a study by Asterès for Cigref and Numeum, approximately 80% of Europe's cloud and software spending currently flows directly to U.S.-based providers, representing roughly €265 billion annually. In the cloud infrastructure market specifically, Synergy Research Group estimates that the three largest U.S. providers hold around 70% of European spending, while European providers have stalled at roughly 15%.
Behind these financial outflows is a dire reality: European organizations have been transferring all their valuable data to foreign ecosystems for decades. While advanced data science tools initially offered a shortcut to extracting value, this speed came with hidden strings: proprietary product lock-in and increasingly opaque billing models. The more a company innovated, the more financial and technical control they lost to their provider. Furthermore, rising geopolitical volatility has revealed a structural weakness: organizations relying on non-European providers are becoming legally vulnerable to extraterritorial jurisdictions such as the US CLOUD Act.
The era of necessary compromise is over. Over the last decade, European tech leaders have invested massively in infrastructure and software development to build world-class computing capabilities. At Scaleway, we have been contributing to these efforts too, most notably through AION, the consortium we unveiled in May 2026 to represent France's bid under the European Union's AI Gigafactories initiative. Today, Europe holds the talent, the open technologies, and the stable legal framework required to power its own Data & AI future, and the collective will to build the large-scale, sovereign compute capacity that was long the missing piece.
This foundation is now reinforced by major institutional shifts: from the EU Parliament's landmark resolution on technological sovereignty, to the EU Commission's tender for sovereign cloud, to the recently adopted proposal for the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA). Together, these decisions have turned sovereignty from a theoretical ideal into a market reality.
European organizations now have a choice. They do not need to compromise their independence or navigate within business uncertainty for fast innovation anymore. We are at a digital crossroads: continue to rely on extraterritorial providers and accept structural dependency, or reclaim strategic sovereignty and ensure that data, innovation, and prosperity are rooted in Europe.
A vision of European digital sovereignty built on three pillars
At Scaleway, our vision on Europe's digital future stands on three fundamental principles:
1. Sovereignty by design
Data flows towards extraterritorial providers represent a risk for European organizations, even when the data stays on European soil. Since the U.S. CLOUD Act entered into force in 2018, foreign authorities can claim access to data hosted by American companies regardless of its physical location in the world. Furthermore, recent geopolitical shifts have shown that access to critical digital services can be restricted or intercepted arbitrarily based on US administrative pressure.
The good news: Europe may move slowly, but it moves with conviction. Our continent provides a unique, stable legal framework that guarantees control over data, making it immune from foreign interference. We believe the data of European citizens and organizations should be hosted on a platform governed by EU law, ensuring geopolitical volatility never compromises their assets.
Europe has built a robust framework of security and privacy certifications that hold providers to the highest standards, from the internationally recognised ISO 27001 baseline to demanding national schemes such as France’s SecNumCloud, Germany’s BSI C5, Italy’s ACN cloud qualification and Spain’s ENS, alongside sector-specific labels like HDS for health data. On privacy, GDPR already sets a global benchmark. A zero-data-retention principle should complete the picture: no storage or reuse of your prompts or outputs when running state-of-the-art models.
2. Interoperability
Most Data & AI capabilities provided by US cloud providers rely on proprietary software, creating a "lock-in" effect where organisations lose technical control and freedom over time.
We believe European organisations should operate on open standards that guarantee the ability to implement hybrid cloud architectures or migrate workloads without expensive code rewrites. Open source-based Data & AI capabilities are more than just a technology choice; they are a guarantee of freedom.
No more undesired long-term commitments with any providers. You should be able to take your data and AI workloads wherever you want, anytime.
3. Transparent pricing
Over the last decade, non-European cloud providers have been just as inventive in expanding their Data & AI capabilities as they have been in making their pricing models increasingly complex and opaque. Composite pricing variables are difficult to grasp, resulting in unpredictable billing and obstacles to cost optimization.
We believe European organisations should be able to understand, analyse, and optimise their cloud invoices without requiring specialist expertise. No more room for complex variables or hidden fees. European organisations need predictable and easy-to-understand cost models to keep bills under control, whether using pay-per-use or monthly subscription models.
Furthermore, we believe European organisations should be able to implement FinOps practices effectively in their organisation, allowing them to pinpoint costs per project and per resource, as well as to optimize their cloud invoices.
Scaleway's commitment to European Data & AI sovereignty
Scaleway provides the most comprehensive and sovereign Data & AI platform to unify the entire data lifecycle, from high-performance data warehousing to AI model training and deployment. We believe European organisations should be able to extract the maximum value from their data while maintaining the legal safety, cost control, and architectural freedom that extraterritorial cloud providers simply cannot offer.
The Scaleway Data & AI platform is the tangible manifestation of our vision for true European digital sovereignty:
- Absolute sovereignty & security: As a 100% European-owned company, Scaleway operates solely under European jurisdiction. This means data hosted with Scaleway is subject exclusively to EU law and immune to foreign interference and geopolitical volatility. Our infrastructure is secured to meet the most rigorous standards.
- Privacy by design: We guarantee that no unauthorised access to your data happens and that zero data retention occurs for your AI workloads. We never store or reuse your prompts and outputs.
- True interoperability: The platform is built on open standards such as ClickHouse® and Apache Kafka, ensuring that workload portability and hybrid cloud strategies are always a viable reality.
- Transparent pricing: We provide easy-to-understand pricing models with no hidden fees or complex variables. Whether you choose a pay-per-use model or a dedicated deployment, we support your FinOps journey with dedicated tools for cost tracking and optimization, ensuring your budget fuels growth rather than overhead.
Last but not least: by keeping your data and financial flows at Scaleway, you are directly contributing to the wealth and prosperity of Europe. For every €1 spent with Scaleway, approximately 68 cents are reinvested back into the European economy. This ensures that high-value employment, strategic expertise, and technological innovation thrive on European soil.
We built Scaleway because we believe Europe should never again have to choose between innovation and independence. This is the future we are committing to, and the one we invite you to build with us.
You have a choice now. Scaleway is ready to support you on what's next.
