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The
company's president, Brad Smith, said it's not something that
officials are talking about in Washington, D.C. but it is a
“real concern” for Microsoft's customers across Europe, which
include governments.
President Donald Trump has stoked tensions between the U.S. and
Europe with his tariff-fueled trade war, and alarmed European
leaders with policy changes, including pausing intelligence
sharing with Ukraine, that throw into doubt his administration's
commitment to the trans-Atlantic relationship.
Smith, speaking at an event in Brussels, tried to allay concerns
as he announced that the company was expanding data center
operations across Europe.
“What we want Europeans to know is that they can count on us,”
he said in a speech.
“In the unlikely event we are ever ordered by any government
anywhere in the world to suspend or cease cloud operations in
Europe, we are committing that Microsoft will promptly and
vigorously contest such a measure using all legal avenues
available, including by pursuing litigation in court,” Smith
wrote in a Wednesday blog post.
He noted that Microsoft has experience fighting lawsuits from
the previous Trump administration as well as from former
President Barack Obama’s administration.
“If we ever find ourselves losing we will put in place business
continuity arrangements” that include storing computer code in
Switzerland that European partners can access, he said.
Microsoft is making five digital commitments to Europe,
including increasing its data center capacity by 40% over the
next two years and expanding data center operations in 16
countries, Smith said. He did not list the countries. The
expansion will cost tens of billions of dollars annually. Smith
declined to be more specific about the cost when asked by
reporters.
The expansion comes amid calls for Europe to assert tech and
data sovereignty by weaning itself off reliance from big U.S.
cloud data service providers, including Microsoft, Amazon and,
to a lesser extent, Google.
“Given recent geopolitical volatility, we recognize that
European governments likely will consider additional options,”
and Microsoft is committed to collaborating with European
companies, Smith said.
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