Amazon made the AWS European Sovereign Cloud generally available across the European Union on 15 January 2026 with a €7.8 billion investment to support infrastructure, staffing and long-term operations.
KEY FACTS
- Service AWS European Sovereign Cloud now generally available across the EU
- Investment €7.8 billion committed
- First deployment Brandenburg, Germany with multiple availability zones
- Local Zones additional sovereign Local Zones planned in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal
- Residency infrastructure, services and operations located entirely within the EU
In a blog post from Amazon Web Services, the company reported a €7.8 billion investment to support infrastructure buildout, staffing and long-term operations and to drive regional economic activity and job creation.
The sovereign cloud operates as a distinct environment. Infrastructure, services and operations are located entirely within the EU and the platform is designed to function independently from existing global regions, with continued operation possible if connectivity outside the EU becomes unavailable.
The first deployment is in Brandenburg, Germany and includes multiple availability zones with redundant power and networking. Additional sovereign Local Zones in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal are intended to support workloads that require in-country processing and lower latency.
Dedicated European legal entities incorporated under German law handle daily operations, service delivery and customer support. Operational roles are held by personnel based in the EU with a planned longer-term transition toward staffing exclusively with EU citizens. An independent advisory board composed of EU citizens provides oversight on operational integrity and compliance commitments.
Customer content and customer-created metadata including roles, permissions, resource labels and configurations remain within the selected Region. The infrastructure uses its own identity and access management and billing systems operating within European borders. Certificate authority services are handled by European trust service providers and Domain Name System services use European top-level domains.
Third-party audits are under way and alignment with ISO and SOC reporting frameworks is documented. National information security authorities are involved in attestation processes. A Sovereign Reference Framework documents controls related to governance independence, operational authority and technical isolation.
WHY IT MATTERS
The service provides EU customers regionally isolated cloud infrastructure with explicit controls for data residency and a governance model intended to address jurisdictional and compliance requirements within the European Union.