Microsoft promised right this moment to construct out its information middle capability on European soil in a bid to be the “voice of purpose” in tense U.S.-EU relations.
The corporate, one of many main cloud suppliers by way of its Microsoft Azure service, mentioned it plans to increase its European information middle capability by 40 % over the following two years and increase operations in 16 European international locations.
The plans are a welcome dedication for the EU. The European Fee has mentioned it needs to triple the EU’s information middle capability over the following 5 to seven years, as half of a bigger plan to maintain up within the international synthetic intelligence race.
Coaching AI fashions requires huge quantities of pc energy and information storage capability.
Microsoft dispatched its president, Brad Smith, to Brussels to unveil the plans. He struck a conciliatory tone at a time when the U.S. administration and different U.S. tech executives have launched a full-frontal assault on a few of the EU’s tech rulebooks.
“We perceive that European legal guidelines apply to our enterprise practices in Europe, simply as native legal guidelines apply to native practices in the US,” Smith mentioned in a weblog put up, referring to European competitors regulation and the EU’s new digital competitors rulebook, the Digital Markets Act.
Smith added that Microsoft needs to be a “voice of purpose,” selling “steady” ties throughout the Atlantic.
Microsoft’s pitch may very well be on a collision course with a rising motion pushing for a European tech infrastructure, and rising calls by European governments to construct a sovereign cloud.