Trump's Aggression Sours Europe on US Cloud Giants

WIRED

24-03-2025

Mar 24, 2025 2:00 AM Companies in the EU are starting to look for ways to ditch Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services amid fears of rising security risks from the US. But cutting ties won't be easy. Photograph:The global backlash against the second Donald Trump administration keeps on growing. Canadians have boycotted US-made products, anti–Elon Musk posters have appeared across London amid widespread Tesla protests, and European officials have drastically increased military spending as US support for Ukraine falters. Dominant US tech services may be the next focus.
There are early signs that some European companies and governments are souring on their use of American cloud services provided by the three so-called hyperscalers. Between them, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) host vast swathes of the internet and keep thousands of businesses running. However, some organizations appear to be reconsidering their use of these companies' cloud services—including servers, storage, and databases—citing uncertainties around privacy and data access fears under the Trump administration.
'There's a huge appetite in Europe to de-risk or decouple the over-dependence on US tech companies, because there is a concern that they could be weaponized against European interests,' says Marietje Schaake, a nonresident fellow at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center and a former, decade-long member of the European Parliament.
The moves may already be underway. On March 18, politicians in the Netherlands House of Representatives passed eight motions asking the government to reduce reliance on US tech companies and move to European alternatives. Days before, more than 100 organizations signed an open letter to European officials calling for the continent to become 'more technologically independent' and saying the status quo creates 'security and reliability risks.'
Two European-based cloud service companies, Exoscale and Elastx, tell WIRED they have seen an uptick in potential customers looking to abandon US cloud providers over the last two weeks—with some already starting to make the jump. Multiple technology advisers say they are having widespread discussions about what it would take to uproot services, data, and systems.
'We have more demand from across Europe,' says Mathias Nöbauer, the CEO of Swiss-based hosting provider Exoscale, adding there has been an increase in new customers seeking to move away from cloud giants. 'Some customers were very explicit,' Nöbauer says. 'Especially customers from Denmark being very explicit that they want to move away from US hyperscalers because of the US administration and what they said about Greenland.'
'It's a big worry about the uncertainty around everything. And from the Europeans' perspective—that the US is maybe not on the same team as us any longer,' says Joakim Öhman, the CEO of Swedish cloud provider Elastx. 'Those are the drivers that bring people or organizations to look at alternatives.'
Concerns have been raised about the current data-sharing agreement between the EU and US, which is designed to allow information to move between the two continents while protecting people's rights. Multiple previous versions of the agreement have been struck down by European courts. At the end of January, Trump fired three Democrats from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which helps manage the current agreement. The move could undermine or increase uncertainty around the agreement. In addition, Öhman says, he has heard concerns from firms about the CLOUD Act, which can allow US law enforcement to subpoena user data from tech companies, potentially including data that is stored in systems outside of the US.
Dave Cottlehuber, the founder of SkunkWerks, a small tech infrastructure firm in Austria, says he has been moving the company's few servers and databases away from US providers to European services since the start of the year. 'First and foremost, it's about values,' Cottlehuber says. 'For me, privacy is a right not a privilege.' Cottlehuber says the decision to move is easier for a small business such as his, but he argues it removes some taxes that are paid to the Trump administration. 'The best thing I can do is to remove that small contribution of mine, and also at the same time, make sure that my customers' privacy is respected and preserved,' Cottlehuber says.
Steffen Schmidt, the CEO of Medicusdata, a company that provides text-to-speech services to doctors and hospitals in Europe, says that having data in Europe has always 'been a must,' but his customers have been asking for more in recent weeks. 'Since the beginning of 2025, in addition to data residency guarantees, customers have actively asked us to use cloud providers that are natively European companies,' Schmidt says, adding that some of his services have been moved to Nöbauer's Exoscale.
Harry Staight, a spokesperson for AWS, says it is 'not accurate' that customers are moving from AWS to EU alternatives. 'Our customers have control over where they store their data and how it is encrypted, and we make the AWS Cloud sovereign-by-design,' Straight says. 'AWS services support encryption with customer managed keys that are inaccessible to AWS, which means customers have complete control of who accesses their data.' Staight says the membership of the PCLOB 'does not impact' the agreements around EU-US data sharing and that the CLOUD Act has 'additional safeguards for cloud content.' Google and Microsoft declined to comment.
The potential shift away from US tech firms is not just linked to cloud providers. Since January 15, visitors to the European Alternatives website increased more than 1,200 percent. The site lists everything from music streaming services to DDoS protection tools, says Marko Saric, a cofounder of European cloud analytics service Plausible. 'We can certainly feel that something is going on,' Saric says, claiming that during the first 18 days of March the company has 'beaten' the net recurring revenue growth it saw in January and February. 'This is organic growth which cannot be explained by any seasonality or our activities,' he says.
While there are signs of movement, the impact is likely to be small—at least for now. Around the world, governments and businesses use multiple cloud services—such as authentication measures, hosting, data storage, and increasingly data centers providing AI processing—from the big three cloud and tech service providers. Cottlehuber says that, for large businesses, it may take many months, if not longer, to consider what needs to be moved, the risks involved, plus actually changing systems. 'What happens if you have a hundred petabytes of storage, it's going to take years to move over the internet,' he says.
For years, European companies have struggled to compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon's cloud services and technical infrastructure, which make billions every year. It may also be difficult to find similar services on the scale of those provided by alternative European cloud firms.
'If you are deep into the hyperscaler cloud ecosystem, you'll struggle to find equivalent services elsewhere,' says Bert Hubert, an entrepreneur and former government regulator, who says he has heard of multiple new cloud migrations to US firms being put on hold or reconsidered. Hubert has argued that it is no longer 'safe' for European governments to be moved to US clouds and that European alternatives can't properly compete. 'We sell a lot of fine wood here in Europe. But not that much furniture,' he says. However, that too could change.
Schaake, the former member of the European Parliament, says a combination of new investments, a different approach to buying public services, and a Europe-first approach or investing in a European technology stack could help to stimulate any wider moves on the continent. 'The dramatic shift of the Trump administration is very tangible,' Schaake says. 'The idea that anything could happen and that Europe should fend for itself is clear. Now we need to see the same kind of pace and leadership that we see with defense to actually turn this into meaningful action.'