A Franco-German industrial alliance aims to strip Big Tech’s grip on Europe’s sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure. France’s Bull and Schwarz Digits, the technology division of Germany’s Schwarz Group, signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a full-stack European alternative, spanning physical servers through software layers.
The announcement landed Tuesday at the German government’s 2026 Digital Summit in Berlin. It arrives as European policymakers and industry leaders grow increasingly anxious about dependence on American cloud providers for sensitive workloads. Meanwhile, Chancellor Friedrich Merz had declared just one day earlier that Germany and Europe must accelerate development of homegrown AI capabilities.
The partnership specifically targets regulated and strategic sectors. Data, infrastructure, and operations would remain under European jurisdiction and control, a key requirement for government agencies, healthcare networks, and defense contractors.
Schwarz Digits contributes STACKIT, its sovereign cloud platform. The parent company also owns Lidl and Kaufland supermarket chains, giving the tech arm considerable financial backing. Bull brings decades of high-performance computing expertise and its Angers factory, which produces rack-scale AI systems using direct liquid cooling.
The hardware credentials speak for themselves. In June, Bull systems claimed the top three spots on the Green500 ranking of energy-efficient supercomputers. The company also built JUPITER, Germany’s flagship exascale supercomputer and what Bull describes as Europe’s most powerful.
Under the agreement, Bull will sell its BullSequana AI platform through the STACKIT Marketplace to enterprise and public-sector customers. Beyond initial commercial steps, the companies intend to co-design servers based on Open Compute Project standards, pursue SAP RISE integrations, and explore quantum computing integration.
“Together, we demonstrate that Europe can deliver high-performance innovation entirely on its own terms,” said Bernie Wagner, chief revenue officer of Schwarz Digits.
Bull employs 3,000 people across 32 countries and reports roughly €720 million in revenue. The collaboration signals a shift toward industrial consolidation within Europe’s fragmented cloud market. As a result, hyperscaler alternatives may finally gain the scale needed to compete on performance, not just compliance.
