November 28, 2022
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, has granted French cloud service provider, OVHcloud, a company that provides web and cloud hosting solutions, a $208 million credit facility to help it open new data centers.
The credit facility is said to reflect the EU’s priorities for strategic autonomy in the field of new technologies. It will also help OVHcloud’s plan to expand internationally by opening 15 new data centers, 10 of which will be in Europe, by the end of 2024.
The funds will be used to support OVHcloud’s expansion in Europe, where it is positioning itself as the champion of an open, reversible, transparent, and federated cloud ecosystem while promoting users’ full and complete data sovereignty.
The EIB also stated that this assistance contributes to efforts by European public decision-makers to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in its digital infrastructures, possibly referring to initiatives such as the recently announced funding for the EU’s own satellite communications network and the European Chips Act, which aims to boost the EU’s semiconductor industry.
The loan is the European Investment Bank’s first to a pure cloud market player for a maximum amount, and it is in line with the European Union’s strategy to strengthen the continent’s autonomy in new technologies, according to the EIB and OVHcloud.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.
