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Huizhao Huang

Xiaofei Xu

Alibaba Cloud announced on Wednesday that it has launched its first data centres in France, as it continues to expand its footprint in Europe amid growing calls on the continent for data sovereignty.
The move came as a response to increasing demand from customers in the region, the cloud computing services unit of Alibaba Group Holding said in a statement.
“The expansion of our cloud infrastructure into France reinforces our ongoing commitment to empowering European businesses with sovereign, secure, and intelligent solutions,” said Feifei Li, Alibaba Cloud’s chief technology officer and president of international business.
European businesses and regulators are placing a growing emphasis on data sovereignty, as demand for locally hosted cloud services climbs across the region.
The European Commission published its tech sovereignty package on June 3 in a bid to make the bloc “a global leader” in artificial intelligence and protect its “digital independence”.
The bloc’s Cloud and AI Development Act identified “limited data centre capacity” as a significant threat to its ability to benefit from the digital transformation.
The new facilities in Paris mark Alibaba Cloud’s third hub in Europe after Germany and Britain as the firm plans to roll out a suite of agentic AI services across the region in the second half of the year.
This is also another milestone for its broader international expansion plans. At its annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou in September, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu Yongming announced the company’s biggest-ever overseas investment in AI infrastructure.
The plan included new cloud regions in Brazil, France and the Netherlands, alongside capacity expansions in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai.
The planned agentic AI services would cover the development, deployment and operation of AI agents, offering enterprises tools to build, test and monitor AI systems while meeting security and compliance requirements, the company said.
Despite ranking fourth globally by revenue, Alibaba Cloud is still a relatively small player in the region, which remains heavily dominated by American tech giants. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud together account for about 70 per cent of the region’s cloud infrastructure revenue, according to Synergy Research Group, while all European providers combined hold just 15 per cent.
Alibaba Cloud has operated in Europe since 2016, when it opened its first data centre in Frankfurt. More recently, the company has sought to raise its profile in the region through partnerships and sponsorships, including a six-year agreement signed with Uefa in May covering the Champions League and Euro 2028.
Hi-tech sectors including cloud services and AI represent a rapidly growing part of Alibaba’s operation. Its Cloud Intelligence Group saw a 38 per cent increase in revenue during the first quarter of the year to 41.6 billion yuan (US$6.15 billion), while AI-related products accounted for about 30 per cent of external cloud revenue following 11 consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth.
The company has committed at least 380 billion yuan to AI and cloud infrastructure over three years. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.


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Opening of Paris hub is a response to increased demand, says the China tech giant as it looks to roll out agentic AI services across Europe


Opening of Paris hub is a response to increased demand, says the China tech giant as it looks to roll out agentic AI services across Europe.


Alibaba Cloud launches data centres in France amid Europe’s data sovereignty push

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Opening of Paris hub is a response to increased demand, says the China tech giant as it looks to roll out agentic AI services across Europe

Opening of Paris hub is a response to increased demand, says the China tech giant as it looks to roll out agentic AI services across Europe