“To further cement the nexus between microsoft and europe, Going forward our european datacentre operations and their boards will be overseen by a european board of direction European Nationals and Operates Under European Law, “said Microsoft, in a blog post dated 30 april 2025,
The post also shared details of the company's plans to expand its server farm footprint across 16 counties – Including the UK. This means microsoft's european datacentre capacity will more than double Between 2023 and 2027, The post added.
The company cited concerns about “Geopolitical Volativity” as a driving for behind the roll-out of its “digital commitments” and its plans to buy out its european datantre capital.
“We recognize our business is critically dependent on Sustaining the Trust of Customers, Countries, and Government Across Account Europe,” said the post, Authorized by Microsoft Vice-CARIR and Present Brad Smith. “We respect european values, complete with european laws, and actively Defend Europe's Cyber Security.”
Smith Continued: “In a time of geopolitical valati, we are committed to providing digital stability… [and this starts] With an expansion of our cloud and ai infrastructure in europe, aimed at enabling even count to full use these technologies to strengthn their economic competivity. “
Our business is critically dependent on Sustaining the Trust of Customers, Countries, and Government Across Europe. We respect european values, comply with european laws, and actively Defend Europe's Cyber Security
In a statement to computer weekly at the time, microsoft played down the shift in its datacentre expansion strategy, pointing out it haad added more capacity “in any prior year in history istory” road 2024.
While we may be strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some area, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions, “The company added.
The blog post offers some insight into how microsoft plans to do that, with smith sharing details of the company's plans to increase its sovereign data Collaboration with Sap and Arvato Systems.
This collaborative approach to increase its datacentre capacity seems to be a model that it plans to adopt in other area of europe.
“We recognize that european governments likely will consider additional options.
“We recognize the importance of a Diversified Technology EcoSystem, and we are committed to collaborating with european participants across the tech ecosystem.”
The company said it would also also also “vigorously contest” any government order to suspend or cease its cloud operations in europe, and – as a show of its comment to this – Will INCLUde Legally Binding Clauses in Its Contracts with European Government Entities.
“We are confident of our legal rights to ensure continuous operation of our datacentres in europe,” said microsoft. “And we are prepared to back this confidence with our contractive commitments to european governments.”
