AI Vocabulary · 02 AI Infrastructure
What is Sovereign Cloud?
A cloud designed so that location, operation and applicable law stay within one jurisdiction, such as the EU.
Providers call an offer a sovereign cloud when data stays in one region, staff from that region run the systems and a local company is the contracting party. There is no single legal definition yet. In June 2026 the European Commission proposed the Cloud and AI Development Act with four levels, from hosting in the EU (level 1) to full control of the software supply chain and protection from foreign law (level 4), meant as criteria for public procurement.
Offers range from European providers to separate partitions of US hyperscalers, such as the AWS European Sovereign Cloud in Brandenburg, generally available since January 2026. How far such a partition is out of reach of US law is the provider's own claim and is debated.
Why it matters for you
Sovereignty decides who can legally reach your data, in addition to where it is stored. Public bodies and regulated industries ask for it more and more often, and that shapes which providers you can use with them.
Own it
Ask which company is your contracting party, who holds the encryption keys, where the operating staff sit and which law applies. Check the answers against your data sovereignty needs.
Where it comes from
The four proposed levels are summarised by InCyber (proposal of 3 June 2026). The AWS example comes from the AWS News Blog (January 2026, vendor).
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