Airbus is shifting sensitive cloud workloads away from Amazon to Scaleway as Europe grows twitchy about US-controlled infrastructure.
According to Reuters, the aerospace giant has signed a multi-year deal with the French cloud outfit to host critical industrial and defence applications.
The move is part of Airbus’s digital sovereignty push, which means keeping data under European control rather than trusting the US government with it.
Scaleway said the contract covers cloud infrastructure for selected enterprise applications that require high governance, resilience, and legal protection. The platform will support business-critical applications across aircraft design, engineering, manufacturing and enterprise operations.
Reuters said Airbus will migrate around 70 critical applications to Scaleway by the end of 2028. A wider programme could cover up to 900 applications across the next five to six years.
Airbus chief digital officer Catherine Jestin said the company picked Scaleway after checking more than 150 technical and legal requirements.
“The second set of criteria concerned legal requirements, in particular the much-discussed protection against the kill switch and against the application of extraterritorial laws,” she said.
That is the polite aerospace way of saying Airbus does not fancy having its most sensitive systems exposed to foreign legal meddling. Scaleway’s role will complement Airbus’s existing multi-cloud setup, so this is not a full cloud divorce.
Airbus will keep using non-European providers where the data is less sensitive and the risk is lower.
The company said the aim was to match each workload with the cloud environment best suited to its technical, operational and regulatory needs.
“This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our broader commitment to European digital sovereignty. By integrating a trusted, high-performance cloud environment that keeps our critical data assets shielded from foreign extraterritorial laws, we are ensuring that our digital infrastructure keeps pace with our aerospace innovation, while maintaining control and resilience of our industrial operations,” Jestin said.
Scaleway chief executive Damien Lucas said Europe could still deliver sovereign cloud capabilities without handing the crown jewels to US hyperscalers.
“Artificial intelligence is redefining how the world’s most advanced industries design, manufacture and operate. Unlocking its full potential requires digital infrastructure that combines world-class performance with trust, openness and long-term control. We’re proud that Airbus has selected Scaleway to help build this next chapter of its cloud strategy and to demonstrate that Europe can deliver sovereign cloud capabilities at the highest international standards,” Lucas said.
