Europe: European Commission to provide €1.2 billion for cloud and Edge efforts

The European Commission will provide €1.2 billion ($1.29bn) in state funding for cloud computing and Edge development. The IPCEI Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI CIS) was notified by all seven Member States: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. These Member states are to provide the funds, expected to generate an additional €1.4bn in private investments.

Commissioner Thierry Breton said, "The IPCEI approved today is crucial to deliver breakthrough innovation on Cloud and Edge technologies that fulfill European requirements for interoperability, data privacy, sustainability and cybersecurity. It will also provide the technologies and solutions to reach our Digital Decade Strategy 2030 objectives: a 75 percent of cloud uptake by EU enterprises and more than 10,000 Edge nodes across Europe. With this IPCEI, Europe will reinforce its innovation leadership in next-generation data processing services."

The IPCEI CIS includes 19 projects from 19 companies, and 90 indirect partners, all aimed at building a healthier European cloud community outside of the US-dominated hyperscaler ecosystem. The companies are Deutsche Telkom, Telefónica Espana, Atos, Orange, SAP, Reply, TIM, Oktawave, Antende Industries, OpenNebula Systems, Arsys Internet, Leaseweb Global, 4iG, E-Group ICT Software, Tiscali Italia, CloudFerro, Siemens, Finacantieri, and Engineering Ingegneria Infromatica.