Alibaba Cloud has opened its first data centre in France and secured its third base in Europe.

On June 17 local time, the South China Morning Post reported that Alibaba Cloud announced the launch of its France data centre and said it would respond to demand for data sovereignty in Europe and expanding local cloud demand.

The facility is in Paris. Alibaba Cloud's bases in Europe are now its third, after Germany and Britain. The company explained that expanding infrastructure in France was a step taken in response to growing demand from local customers.

Feifei Li (페이페이 리), Alibaba Cloud's chief technology officer and head of international business, said the France infrastructure expansion strengthens its continued commitment to providing European companies with "sovereignty, security and intelligent solutions". Alibaba Cloud also plans to sequentially roll out agentic AI services across Europe in the second half of this year.

The agentic AI services the company is preparing are designed to support the full process of developing, deploying and operating AI agents. Companies can use them to build, test and monitor AI systems and meet security and compliance requirements, Alibaba Cloud said.

The expanded push into France aligns with the growing trend in Europe toward data sovereignty. European companies and regulators are placing greater weight on cloud services that store data in their own countries or within the region. The European Commission on June 3 introduced a technology sovereignty package and set out goals of making the EU a "global leader" in AI and protecting "digital independence". In its Cloud and AI Development Act, it also pointed to limited data centre capacity as a key threat to digital transformation.

Alibaba Cloud is pursuing the new France base as part of a broader overseas expansion plan. Eddie Wu Yongming (에디 우 융밍), Alibaba's chief executive officer, in September last year at the Hangzhou "Apsara Conference" announced the company's largest-ever overseas AI infrastructure investment. The plan includes new cloud regions in Brazil, France and the Netherlands, and facility expansions in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai.

Alibaba Cloud's presence in the European market remains limited. About 70 percent of European cloud infrastructure revenue is held by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, according to Synergy Research Group. The combined share of European operators is about 15 percent. Alibaba Cloud ranks fourth globally by revenue, but in Europe it is challenging a market structure led by U.S. big tech.

Alibaba Cloud began its European business in 2016 by opening its first data centre in Frankfurt. More recently it has also stepped up efforts to raise local recognition. In May it signed a six-year deal with UEFA to sponsor the Champions League and Euro 2028.

Cloud and AI are also emerging as Alibaba's growth pillars. Cloud Intelligence Group revenue in the first quarter this year was 41.6 billion yuan, up 38 percent from a year earlier. AI-related products accounted for about 30 percent of external cloud revenue and posted triple-digit growth for 11 consecutive quarters. Alibaba has said it will invest at least 380 billion yuan in AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years.

Against this backdrop, the launch of the France data centre is aligning with changes in Europe's regulatory environment while also leading to an attempt to secure infrastructure early to target local corporate demand for AI. With Europe's market heavily dependent on U.S. companies, the next point to watch is whether Alibaba Cloud can expand local infrastructure and AI services together.