More interest in European cloud providers due to the "Trump effect"
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According to a media report, European tech companies are seeing an increase in inquiries, and not just since the current customs chaos.
"There are currently three times as many inquiries as usual", said Nextcloud CEO Frank Karlitschek in response to an inquiry from Der Spiegel. The magazine asked several European cloud and infrastructure providers how their demand has developed in recent months. According to the report, the tenor is clear: companies, public authorities and private users are increasingly seeking alternatives to US service providers.
Raymond Alves, founder of the mapping service Digital Earth, even spoke of a "Trump effect". This is what his company calls the current trend internally. In the six weeks before Der Spiegel's inquiry [1], his service had gained 250 percent more users. However, Alves did not give any specific figures.
Fear of industrial espionage
According to Nina-Sophie Sczepurek from Leitzcloud by vBoxx, the motivation of those wanting to switch is clear. Customers clearly said "that they want to move away from American products." Ionos reported that "the uncertain political situation" in the USA is also leading to increased demand from the security and defense industry. Frank Kalitschek from Nextcloud brings another aspect into play, although according to the report he would rather not refer directly to customers: Industrial espionage. He fears that the US government could use the data stored in the clouds as a "bargaining chip".
One counter-movement to the trend away from US clouds is to adapt the previously strict EU law to the offerings. As c't reports in its current cover story, there are almost "legal contortions [2]" to be able to continue using the popular US services. A central point is the transfer of data from European servers to servers in the USA, which is not actually GDPR-compliant, including the legal access options there. Although there is an EU adequacy decision for the United States from July 2023, the political situation has changed significantly since then.
"Get out of the US clouds" is also the cover story of the current issue 08/25 of c't magazine [3].
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This article was originally published in German [8]. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
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[1] https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/donald-trump-und-die-zoelle-deutsche-cloud-anbieter-boomen-unverhofft-a-ca155678-49d7-4b93-b75f-485203ecd4fc
[2] https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2025/8/2505509205117079527
[3] https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2025/8
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[7] https://social.heise.de/@heiseonlineenglish
[8] https://www.heise.de/news/Mehr-Interesse-an-europaeischen-Cloud-Anbietern-durch-Trump-Effekt-10349873.html
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