Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native • Hacker News Board

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#131

Post by ear7h » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC

ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #47

Can Europe build AI datacenters though? Europe has no wafer production and no companies that produce GPUs. That means it is dependent on Taiwan for wafers and the USA for GPU design. Then there is the question wether there is a will to invest. Gemini gives me this list of publicly traded companies in the US and what they invested in AI infrastructure in 2025: Amazon: $100B Alphabet: $90B Microsoft: $80B Meta: $70B Te…

Wow you're so right, you did such a good job asking computer mommy to confirm your priors!

But actually, that's not the goal here. AI, at least the kind of products that need dedicated datacenters ie. generative, isn't critical infrastructure. The focus is on documents, collaboration tools, file servers, single-sign on, databases etc. that are seemingly monopolized by US providers.

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#132

Post by deaux » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC

tirant wrote: post #28

adrianN wrote: post #2

I kind of share the opinion of the FSF Europe that it is less important where software comes from compared to whether it’s libre, but for cloud hardware I really hope that we manage to create competitive European offerings. Maybe we’re lucky and this European initiative will produce more than five Fraunhofer institutes and a gift to SAP.

I would say there’s even less chance nowadays to generate a fully private set of European alternatives to American cloud offerings. Europes bureaucratization and the growth of the size of states has increased the last 10 years. I have less and less hope that we’re able to set the right free market conditions for real competition to happen. That doesn’t mean that won’t be alternatives to American offerings, but most p…

> Europes bureaucratization and the growth of the size of states has increased the last 10 years.

None of these things matter. They're trivially set aside. All that matters is how many insane threats the US Gov keeps making. Hopefully as many as possible. This is what creates demand, and from demand, everything else follows automatically.

Like, how can you not see this based on recent events? I'm willing to bet a house that in Feb 2026 there will be much more relative movement from US to EU clouds than in Feb 2015. Despite all of that "increased bureaucracy".

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#133

Post by oellegaard » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:01 PM UTC

gregman1 wrote: post #106

I’d start with govs. Governments are mostly running Microsoft. Like your and your friends and family’s health, tax, ownership, pension and other data.

This! I'm Danish and everything in the government is Microsoft. USA is trying to make a hostile takeover of Greenland, a part of the Danish Kingdom, and meanwhile the parliament is migrating to Azure. I hope someone in the government wakes up soon before it's too late.

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#134

Post by atoav » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC

zppln wrote: post #16

andersa wrote: post #7

This will happen automatically once an EU native cloud exists with comparable pricing. Get on it. No one will pay 10x to store data in Europe.

What is the cost of storing data in Europe today?

Depends on the amount of traffic. 4TB with 4TB traffic a month cost roughly 27 Euros am month at Hetzner.

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#135

Post by 202508042147 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC

627467 wrote: post #113

ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #47

Can Europe build AI datacenters though? Europe has no wafer production and no companies that produce GPUs. That means it is dependent on Taiwan for wafers and the USA for GPU design. Then there is the question wether there is a will to invest. Gemini gives me this list of publicly traded companies in the US and what they invested in AI infrastructure in 2025: Amazon: $100B Alphabet: $90B Microsoft: $80B Meta: $70B Te…

People tend to fixate about cutting edge technology, but my naïve intuition says the problem in Europe is not in lack of some secret sauce: it is hidden in plain sight lack of energy to run the DC - and worse - lack of long term desire to make the tough choices to get that energy

I would also add lack of technical competence at C level. In my previous job, I have dealt with quite a few European CEOs whos only background was an MBA. Unlike the US where a lot of CEOs have a deep technical background...

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#136

Post by hsuduebc2 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC

If China can and will do it, it is naive to assume other superpowers with their own interests, especially when they have convenient access to your data, would not do the same. More likely in country when business is so tightly interconnected with politics.

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#137

Post by 202508042147 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #117

202508042147 wrote: post #58

Last week I migrated our db away from AWS RDS to a European cloud provider. Everything runs fine and we also have it cheaper! One of our domains is due for renewal in a couple of months. I'm setting up the transfer to a EU registrar for it next week. This all takes time and it's not the most important thing for the bottom line, but on the long run I'm sure I'll look back and say it was a great investment.

> to a EU registrar Which one? I've been using DNSimple for so long, been trying to find something equally developer friendly who is based in Europe but haven't had much success. Used to use Gandi before DNSimple but it's obviously down the drain today.

Best would be to research a local one where you live. Support your community while you're at it!

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#138

Post by lucasRW » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

Why EU-native rather than nation-native ? If you are French, your sensitive stuff must be French-native, just like Switzerland does, not "EU-native whatever that means".

There is no EU, each country has very strong different interests, on some topics, some will decide to stay close to the US, on some other topics, some will seek proximity with the BRICS, etc, etc. Constantly being in an in-between is what has destroyed Europe.

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#139

Post by _tk_ » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:04 PM UTC

202508042147 wrote: post #49

As a European, I am glad that this is finally discussed in the open! I have made multiple comments in the last weeks that one of the most important things, for me, is an alternative to the Visa/Mastercard duopoly. And yes, I can use an app to pay, but whenever I rent a car or purchase something online, I still use one of these two American companies. Why isn't the European Commission mandating these app payments in d…

Take a look here: https://wero-wallet.eu/

Re: Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native

#140

Post by atoav » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:04 PM UTC

simianparrot wrote: post #10

andersa wrote: post #7

This will happen automatically once an EU native cloud exists with comparable pricing. Get on it. No one will pay 10x to store data in Europe.

[flagged]

Ah the good old unelected bureaucrat-myth. And then you check and the very (usually right wing) politicians rallying against the bureaucrats voted for this or that regulation themselves.