SAP says it will pump €20 billion into expanding sovereign cloud infrastructure in Europe over the next ten years, pitching itself as a secure and compliant alternative to American cloud giants.

The Germany-based enterprise software biz is looking to provide sovereign infrastructure for the public sector and regulated environments, said Thomas Saueressig, board member for customer services and delivery.

Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty [1]READ MORE

"With our expanded SAP Sovereign Cloud offering, SAP is unlocking access to the full spectrum of cloud innovations and AI capabilities for all markets and industries while ensuring these advancements are delivered in a sovereign framework and on customers' own terms."

Data sovereignty in Europe is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For example, in Ireland, Meta was fined €1.2 billion for [2]inadequately safeguarding the transfer of European residents' data to the US .

SAP is offering three options for businesses concerned about data sovereignty and compliance.

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First is SAP Cloud Infrastructure, an IaaS platform developed and operated with open source technologies within SAP's datacenter network. The vendor said all data is to be stored within the EU to maintain compliance with GDPR.

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Secondly, SAP is offering a Sovereign Cloud On-Site within a customer-owned or customer-selected datacenter. It is designed to offer high levels of data, operational, technical, and legal sovereignty.

Lastly, SAP is offering Delos Cloud in Germany, which it says offers a secure and sovereign cloud flexible enough to meet country-specific sovereignty requirements.

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"The digital resilience of Europe depends on sovereignty that is secure, scalable and future-ready," said Martin Merz, president, SAP Sovereign Cloud.

However, in June, [7]SAP CEO Christian Klein warned against any efforts to compete with US cloud hyperscalers in Europe.

He said SAP had struck deals with French AI company Mistral and business services company Capgemini to support customers concerned about data sovereignty in Europe, but saw no point in replicating the effort at the level of cloud infrastructure.

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"The only thing I would caution against in Europe is this: the competitiveness of Europe's car industry or chemical industry will not be by building 20 different datacenters in France and trying to compete against the US hyperscalers," Klein said.

"It's completely crazy, and that is sovereignty completely done in the wrong way. We need the best here in Europe to apply AI, to apply intelligent software to be the best, to produce much better, much faster cars, and be way more efficient running our supply chains."

[9]Microsoft can't guarantee data sovereignty – OVHcloud says 'We told you so'

[10]When hyperscalers can't safeguard one nation's data from another, dark clouds are ahead

[11]'Close to impossible' for Europe to escape clutches of US hyperscalers

[12]'Impossible hill to climb': US clouds crush European competition on their home turf

[13]European biz calls for Euro tech for local people

While SAP AI and data storage offers customers "complete sovereignty from the top to the bottom," US providers are also marketing data sovereignty solutions in Europe in a bid to counter concerns among some [14]governments and [15]commercial customers worried about the Trump 2.0 administration.

[16]AWS , [17]Google , and [18]Microsoft have all responded to concerns that experts began to voice in [19]February , weeks after the bombastic US president was sworn in.

An SAP spokesperson said the new investment covers the development, delivery, and maintenance of SAP's sovereign cloud solutions, including infrastructure, research and development, operating personnel, and compliance investments.

The company said Klein's caution was against wasting resources on trying to replicate hyperscalers' global infrastructure at massive scale – "prioritizing code over building concrete." His message was that Europe's competitiveness will come from software, AI, and applied innovation, not from duplicating datacenter capacity.

SAP's €20 billion investment is set to be a "targeted at full-stack sovereignty and ensures that Europe has choice and control where sovereignty matters most" such as in the public sector, regulated industries, and defense, the spokesperson said.

It is set to build on SAP's existing European datacenter footprint in Walldorf, Sankt Leon-Rot, and Frankfurt, while expanding capabilities with sovereign controls, new deployments at customer locations, and working with sovereign partners like Delos Cloud in Germany.

"SAP isn't competing with hyperscalers on scale or entering the IaaS business, but ensures that Europe can adopt cloud and AI securely, under European control. The investment is about building sovereignty into the stack – not about duplicating hyperscaler concrete," they said. ®

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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/microsoft_admits_it_cannot_guarantee/

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/22/dpc_fines_meta_12b_tells/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aLm3lPacdAFAzUHqYwU1PAAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLm3lPacdAFAzUHqYwU1PAAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLm3lPacdAFAzUHqYwU1PAAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLm3lPacdAFAzUHqYwU1PAAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/europes_cloud_datacenter_ambition/

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLm3lPacdAFAzUHqYwU1PAAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/ovhcloud_interview/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/when_hyperscalers_cant_safeguard_one/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/ditching_us_clouds_for_local/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/euro_cloud_vs_us/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/23/european_biz_open_letter/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/19/dutch_parliament_us_tech/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/17/european_tech_sovereign_fund/

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/microsoft_admits_it_cannot_guarantee/

[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/21/google_sovereign_cloud_updates/

[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/microsoft_getting_nervous_about_europes/

[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/26/europe_has_second_thoughts_about/

[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/