On September 23, China’s largest cloud computing provider, Alibaba Group, announced during its annual Aspara Conference in Hangzhou, plans to build its very first data centers in Finland, the Netherlands, and Turkey, as the giant expands its Alibaba Europe footprint.
The European Union (EU) needs foreign computing capacity to compete in AI, but each new foreign data center risks increasing the strategic dependency EU policy is trying to fight and inevitably reduce.
What Aliabab Announced
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Alibaba Group, announced that it will “establish its first cloud regions” in Finland, the Netherlands, and Turkey, while expanding existing data center capacity in Germany, France, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia, and Hong Kong over the next 12 months, widening the physical footprint of Alibaba Cloud in Europe.
According to Alibaba Group CEO, Eddie Wu, the Chinese giant’s target is for Alibaba Cloud’s global data center capacity to exceed 20 gigawatts by 2032. During the same Apsara Conference, Alibaba separately unmasked the Zhenwu V900 AI chip, which Wu described as “the most powerful AI chip in China today.”
It’s worth noting that the new Zhenwu V900 AI chip is reportedly twice as powerful as Nvidia’s China-specific H20 chip.
Alibab’s Cloud Intelligence Group reported a 38% year-over-year (YoY) revenue increase in 2026’s first quarter (Q1), reaching $6.15 billion (41.6 billion yuan), with AI products accounting to around 30% of external cloud revenue – following 11 consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth in that same category.
Over three years, Alibaba has committed at least $53 billion (380 billion yuan) to AI and cloud infrastructure.
Alibaba Group in EU’s Cloud Architecture
In June, Alibaba Cloud opened its first two data center availability zones in Paris, France – its third European hub after Germany, where it has operated since 2016, and the UK.
“The expansion of our cloud infrastructure into France reinforces our ongoing commitment to empowering European business with sovereign, secure, and intelligent solutions,” said Feifei Li, Alibaba Cloud’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and President of tis international business.
Despite all the expansion, Alibaba Cloud remains a minor player in Europe, despite ranking fourth globally among cloud providers by revenue.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud together hold around 70% of Europe’s cloud infrastructure revenue. In parallel, all European cloud providers, combined, hold around 15%, according to Synergy Research Group.
Alibaba’s push comes at a sensitive moment for Europe. AI development requires huge amounts of computing power, yet much of that capacity is still supplied by American and Asian technology companies, which is not benefiting Europe’s independency goals.
The growth of Alibaba Cloud Europe therefore offers businesses more computing resources, while also raising questions about who controls the infrastructure beneath Europe’s AI economy.
The demand for Cloud computing in Europe is rising as companies build generative AI tools and move heavy data workloads online. So, Europe wants enough computing capacity to support that growth locally instead of sending workloads elsewhere.
More Compute, More Foreign Footprints
Data centers can reduce latency and bring computing closer to European customers, but the underlying platforms, software and corporate control remain tied to a company headquartered in China.
The growing Alibaba Cloud data center Europe footprint is somehow connected to the company’s AI strategy. Alibaba wants its worldwide data center capacity to exceed 20GW by 2032 as demand for AI computing grows.
“Today, the total volume of Machine Thinking is less than 3% of all Human Thinking,” said Alibaba CEO, Eddie Wu, suggesting machine capacity could eventually grow far beyond today’s levels.
According to Alibaba, stronger AI data center infrastructure Europe are essentials as larger models consume greater amounts of processing power. The Chinese company is also building technology deeper in the computing stack. The future of AI infrastructure Europe will involve decisions about the chips and platforms powering data centers.
Europe Wants Capacity Without Losing Control
Washington has tried to limit China’s access to advanced chips, pushing companies like Alibaba to develop their own processors and computing systems. At the same time, both countries are moving beyond competition over model performance toward questions of AI safety and governance.
China has pursued a larger role in shaping global AI rules, while US lawmakers have proposed stronger controls following recent concerns over autonomous AI agents. Europe is stuck between the two.
The adoption of Cloud computing in Europe has placed infrastructure at the center of the EU’s digital strategy. Meanwhile, European policymakers want businesses to have access to powerful Cloud and AI services, while reducing strategic exposure to companies controlled outside the bloc.
That creates a difficult environment for Alibaba Europe. Its investments will address shortages in computing capacity, but European sovereignty policies are increasingly focused on where providers are headquartered, how data is governed and whether critical services can operate independently.
The same pressure affects Alibaba Cloud Europe as regulators examine how foreign providers fit into Europe’s plans for technological sovereignty. For private companies, access to competitive infrastructure may remain attractive. Government and sensitive workloads will face stricter conditions.
Europe’s concerns also go beyond ownership. As AI systems become more autonomous, regulators pay closer attention to security and model access. That conclusion puts European AI data center infrastructure part of a wider discussion about both technological growth and risk.
The recent case of an autonomous AI agent using OpenAI models to breach the Hugging Face platform has added urgency to those concerns. OpenAI called the incident “unprecedented,” while Hugging Face co-founder Clement Delangue described it as “mind-blowing.”
For Europe, Cloud computing in Europe is therefore no longer simply a question of building more servers. The region must decide how much foreign-owned infrastructure can be integrated into critical AI systems without creating new dependencies that become difficult to reverse.
The expansion of Alibaba Cloud in Europe shows how difficult that balance will be. Realistically speaking, Chinese companies can provide investment, computing resources and advanced AI services at a time when European demand is accelerating.
At the same time, another Alibaba Cloud data center Europe project increases the amount of strategically important infrastructure operating under foreign corporate control. Europe may gain the computing capacity it needs, but infrastructure growth alone does not guarantee technological independence.
Ultimately, the rise of Alibaba Europe reflects the larger challenge facing the bloc: Europe needs outside investment to scale AI quickly, yet every new foreign platform makes the question of control more important.
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