The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be fully physically and logically separate from other AWS global regions
In sum – what to know:
Sovereign AWS cloud – AWS is launching a cloud region in Germany with complete operational independence, managed and staffed entirely within the EU.
EU-based control – new company structure, led by EU citizens, ensures legal, technical and security autonomy, including a dedicated advisory board and local certificate authority.
Launching this year – funded to the tune of €7.8 billion, the new AWS cloud servuice will deliver a full AWS experience, meeting strict sovereignty standards.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced major updates to its European Sovereign Cloud initiative, including the creation of an independently governed organization operated entirely from within the European Union. Set to launch by the end of 2025 in Brandenburg, Germany, this sovereign cloud region will serve public sector institutions, regulated industries and enterprises with heightened data residency, compliance and operational control needs, AWS said.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be fully physically and logically separate from other AWS global regions. It will be operated exclusively by EU-resident AWS employees, employ locally issued root certificates and feature dedicated networking and infrastructure sourced from European providers. The entire cloud stack—from data centers to customer support—will remain under EU control, enabling compliance with stringent regional sovereignty and security standards, the company added.
The new sovereign cloud will be overseen by a parent company and three subsidiaries, all incorporated in Germany. Kathrin Renz, currently vice president of AWS Industries and based in Munich, will lead the initiative as its first managing director.
To ensure operational accountability, AWS also said it will establish an independent advisory board composed entirely of EU citizens residing in the EU. The board will oversee sovereignty-related aspects of the operation and include at least one independent member unaffiliated with Amazon. Additionally, a dedicated Security Operations Center (SOC) staffed by EU citizens will support ongoing security oversight and threat mitigation, bringing global best practices into a local context.
The company also highlighted that the new sovereign cloud region is designed to run autonomously—even in the event of disconnection from global AWS infrastructure. Critical services, such as Amazon Route 53 and a sovereign certificate authority, will function independently. A replica of AWS source code, managed securely within the EU, will ensure system continuity during disruptions.
To provide further assurance, AWS will introduce the Sovereign Requirements Framework (SRF), a comprehensive set of technical, legal and operational controls built in consultation with European customers and regulators. The framework ensures that sovereignty requirements are embedded into every layer of the cloud. Independent third-party auditors will assess and validate compliance, and customers will be able to access audit evidence through AWS Artifact, the firm added.
The first AWS European Sovereign Cloud Region will launch in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, by the end of 2025, backed by a €7.8 billion investment.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will offer a comprehensive suite of services, including for artificial intelligence, compute, containers, database, networking, and security. Artificial intelligence services will include Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q and Amazon SageMaker.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced plans to launch a new AWS Region in Chile by the end of 2026. In a blog post, the company noted that the AWS South America (Chile) Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch.
This new Region joins the AWS South America (São Paulo) and AWS Mexico (Central) Regions as the company’s third AWS Region in Latin America. AWS now spans 114 Availability Zones within 35 geographic regions worldwide, with the announcement of plans to create 16 more Availability Zones and five more AWS Regions in New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Chile and the European AWS Sovereign Cloud.
