Europe is moving to bring more of its most sensitive satellite data and computing workloads under the control of domestic technology providers, with OVHcloud and CGI winning a 30-month European Space Agency contract to build infrastructure for storing and processing Earth observation data.
The project, known as Digital EO, will combine cloud storage, computing capacity and artificial intelligence tools to support researchers, governments and businesses working with satellite data. The system will be deployed across Italy, France and Germany, with support operations based in Poland, according to the companies.
The contract comes as European institutions seek greater control over the infrastructure underpinning strategic programmes, particularly as the region’s dependence on US technology companies has become a growing policy concern.
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ESA expects to hold more than 500 petabytes of Earth observation data by 2035. Managing that volume will require substantially more storage and computing capacity, while the growing use of AI in satellite imagery is increasing demand for infrastructure capable of processing data closer to where it is generated and used.
OVHcloud, Europe’s largest cloud provider, will provide the computing, storage and network infrastructure for the system. CGI will serve as the architect and systems integrator.
“Europe absolutely must have control over the infrastructure that runs its most strategic programmes,” OVHcloud CEO Octave Klaba said.
The contract is part of a broader European push to develop a domestic cloud and computing ecosystem capable of supporting government workloads without relying exclusively on infrastructure controlled by providers headquartered outside the region.
The ESA award is significant because Earth observation data is increasingly valuable for more than scientific research.
Satellite imagery can support environmental monitoring, agriculture, climate modelling, disaster response, infrastructure planning, maritime surveillance and other government functions. As AI systems become more capable of analyzing large quantities of imagery, the infrastructure used to store and process that information becomes strategically important in its own right.
Digital EO is intended to connect with existing national and European facilities rather than operate as an isolated cloud environment.
It will also support major European initiatives including Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation programme, and DestinE, the EU’s digital twin of Earth.
That architecture points to a broader European strategy: rather than simply building another cloud platform, European institutions are trying to create an interconnected computing environment in which strategic data can remain within infrastructure governed by European organizations and rules.
The approach also has an economic dimension. Public-sector contracts of this scale can provide European cloud companies with large anchor customers, helping them invest in capacity that can subsequently support commercial workloads.
A Challenge to US Cloud Dominance
The project follows a €180 million cloud procurement awarded exclusively to four European companies in April, highlighting the growing preference among European institutions for locally controlled cloud infrastructure. The policy shift comes as governments across Europe reassess their dependence on US technology suppliers for critical digital infrastructure.
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud dominate much of the global cloud market, giving US companies a substantial advantage in scale, capital and technology.
European providers have struggled to match that scale. Their argument is instead increasingly centered on sovereignty, jurisdiction, data control and the ability of European governments to determine how strategic workloads are handled.
The ESA contract fits directly into that approach.
For OVHcloud, securing large institutional workloads can also strengthen its position as European governments look for alternatives to the largest US cloud platforms.
The company has invested heavily in expanding data-center capacity and positioning itself as a European alternative for customers that place a high value on data sovereignty.
The Digital EO project gives it an opportunity to apply that infrastructure to one of Europe’s largest growing datasets.
Earth Observation Is Becoming An AI Infrastructure Problem
The volume of satellite data expected by ESA illustrates another reason the project matters. More than 500 petabytes of data by 2035 represents an enormous storage requirement, but storage is only one part of the challenge.
The value of Earth observation increasingly comes from analyzing the data rather than simply collecting it. AI models can identify changes in land use, track environmental conditions, process weather information, and extract patterns from imagery that would be difficult to detect manually.
That requires substantial computing capacity.
Digital EO is therefore being designed around storage, compute and AI tools together, rather than treating satellite data as a conventional archive. This could become more useful as Europe expands the use of AI for climate modelling and other Earth observation applications.
The ability to process data within a European-controlled infrastructure could also reduce the need to transfer large datasets between different jurisdictions and cloud environments.
The Project Adds To Europe’s Security Push
The ESA contract is also part of a broader effort to strengthen Europe’s control over Earth observation capabilities.
Earlier in September, ESA awarded parallel study contracts to teams led by Finland’s ICEYE and Italy’s Leonardo to develop a separate security-focused Earth observation architecture for EU governments.
The two initiatives are different, but they point in the same direction.
Europe is seeking to build infrastructure capable of supporting civilian scientific programmes while also strengthening the resilience and security of systems that governments increasingly depend on.
Digital EO will be deployed in Italy, France and Germany, with operational support from Poland. Its connection to Copernicus and DestinE means that the infrastructure could become part of a much broader European digital ecosystem.
The project’s geographic distribution also reduces dependence on a single national facility and provides a basis for cross-border access to computing and storage resources.
OVHcloud and CGI described the contract’s value as “multi-million” euros, while ESA did not disclose the exact figure.
The financial value, however, is only one measure of its importance. The more consequential development is the type of infrastructure Europe is choosing to build and who will control it.
The project shows that Europe’s cloud strategy is increasingly moving beyond the question of price and computing performance. For strategic government workloads, control over infrastructure, data jurisdiction, and supply chains is becoming part of the procurement decision.
As Europe’s satellite data volumes expand and AI makes that data more computationally valuable, the competition between European and US technology providers is likely to extend deeper into the infrastructure layer. Digital EO is an early example of that shift, placing European cloud providers at the center of an effort to build the computing backbone for one of the region’s most strategically important data resources.