The Trump Effect: Microsoft and other US cloud providers lose customers, German companies rejoice

If one were to interpret Brad Smith's words in a way, it might be nervousness. In a lengthy blog post on the company's website, the Microsoft President and Vice Chairman addressed his customers in Europe. The tenor of the text, roughly summarized, was: Don't panic, we hear you. And: Our services in Europe are secure.

Smith addresses several topics in the text. One stands out in particular: "Europe will maintain its digital resilience, even in times of geopolitical volatility," Smith emphasizes in one paragraph. To achieve this, he says, the EU intends to build a European cloud and act as a "voice of reason." And if all of this fails, the EU will even risk a conflict with the US government.

"In the unexpected event that we are ordered by a government anywhere in the world to suspend or cease our cloud operations in Europe, we are committed to swiftly and vigorously challenging such actions using all legal means at our disposal, including litigation," the post states. Furthermore, Smith stated that Microsoft remains committed to complying with European data protection regulations and protecting European cybersecurity.

The letter to European customers is no coincidence: Since Donald Trump took office, many Europeans have been concerned about their dependence on American tech companies. Nearly all major tech companies supported the new president's inauguration ceremony in January with millions in donations. Shortly thereafter, some openly embraced his policies . Microsoft also donated money . And the company's founder, Bill Gates, even explicitly praised Trump in January : A dinner with the president was "quite fascinating," Gates said.

Since then, however, Trump has not only rapidly pushed ahead with state restructuring at home, but has also destroyed a great deal of trust in Europe. Whether through threats to annex Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, through his dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, or through repeated tariff announcements. Companies, government agencies, and private individuals are now asking: How much can we still trust US tech companies?

This concern is not unfounded: A large portion of German infrastructure runs on services from US companies, often including powerful cloud services from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. If these were shut down overnight, the consequences would be enormous. At the same time, data protection concerns are growing: Laws like the Cloud Act in the US already allow US authorities to access data – even if the company operates its servers in Europe. Is it really still a good idea to run sensitive information through US services?

Smith attempts to allay such fears in his post. Regarding Europe's digital resilience, he writes: "In the unlikely event that Microsoft is ever ordered by a court to shut down its services in Europe, we will appoint European partners and put in place contingency arrangements to ensure business continuity."

Regarding data protection, Microsoft is announcing additional options for greater security and encryption. The company is also emphasizing its support for Ukraine, thus countering Donald Trump's policy.

“We not only protected the country’s data, but also immediately helped Ukrainian authorities and citizens protect their country from Russian cyberattacks,” the text states.

Whether it's map apps, cloud services, or web browsers, a large portion of our data is in the hands of large US companies – and many of them at least indirectly support Donald Trump's policies. Yet alternative services from Europe have long been available.

The fact that Microsoft and other US companies have reason to be concerned is demonstrated by developments among their direct German competitors. They all state that interest in their European solutions has increased significantly since Trump took office.

The company Ionos from Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate, which, like the 1&1 brand, belongs to the United Internet Group of the German web pioneer Ralph Dommermuth, offers services for companies with its cloud solutions that are comparable to Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services or the Google Cloud.

Achim Weiß, CEO of the company, explained in response to a request from RND: Since the beginning of the year, the group has noticed “a significantly increased interest” in its own cloud solutions and server products.

"In discussions, political developments in the US are regularly cited as a reason," says Weiß. "We see particularly high demand in regulated sectors such as healthcare and energy, but also in the defense industry."

Demand is coming not only from companies and government agencies, but also from system integrators and software providers. These are now seeking to partner with European cloud providers for their domestic customers in order to become more independent from US services. A public tender reveals that Techniker Krankenkasse, for example, is currently migrating a service from the Amazon cloud to Ionos. The health insurance company did not initially respond to an RND inquiry.

Ionos is currently unwilling to share specific figures on customer growth. "We won't see how this will specifically impact our business for a few months – cloud projects are generally complex and don't happen overnight," says Weiß.

This trend is also being observed by Deutsche Telekom, which also offers cloud services comparable to those offered by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. While no definitive statements can yet be made regarding possible customer growth since January, interest in services outside of the major US corporations has also recently increased here.

"IT projects have a longer lead time, so tangible projects may only appear with some delay. But we can already see increased demand for European solutions like the Open Telekom Cloud, especially from industries such as the public sector and banking," company spokeswoman Kathrin Langkamp told RND.

However, Langkamp says the trend toward greater sovereignty was already noticeable before Trump took office. Events such as the pandemic, supply chain problems, and the war in Ukraine also contributed to this.

But it's not just providers of large-scale infrastructure solutions that are seeing an increase. Stuttgart-based company Nextcloud offers cloud services and office programs that—unlike Microsoft's Office 365 suite—are based on open source infrastructure. They are aimed at medium-sized companies, associations, government agencies, or educational institutions. Managing Director Frank Karlitschek told RND: "Interest in our products has tripled since Donald Trump took office."

"Many inquiries are currently coming from administrations across Europe, but also outside of Europe," says Karlitschek. There are also many new inquiries from the education sector. And recently, increasingly from the healthcare sector, where medical data needs to be particularly protected. "Many now want to switch because they no longer trust services from the US."

The state of Schleswig-Holstein, for example, is currently moving to Nexcloud – although this decision was made before Trump took office. The move is part of a strategy to become more independent from US services. Instead of Microsoft Office, government agencies will use the free LibreOffice, and computers will soon run the open-source Linux operating system instead of Windows.

Karlitschek explains that several concerns play a role among Nextcloud's new customers. First, there's availability: Many are now afraid that US services could simply be shut down by Trump's orders or that sanctions will be imposed. Others are worried about data protection. And then there's the cost factor.

"There's a great fear that prices could explode due to tariff disputes." But in case of doubt, Trump's tariffs aren't even needed for this: providers like Microsoft recently increased subscription prices for Office products. "There's a risk of digital dependence among these monopolists with uncontrolled price increases," says Karlitschek.

Many companies also fear potential industrial espionage. This is a particular concern now that US corporations are investing heavily in artificial intelligence . Theoretically, it's also possible to train AI models using sensitive data.

But it's not just in the business sector that customers are looking for alternative services. In the private sector, the Swiss company Proton has noticed a massive increase in users since Trump took office: "In 2025, the number of new users on both sides of the Atlantic increased by more than 50 percent compared to the same period in 2024," company spokeswoman Martina Dach told RND.

Proton's services are privacy-friendly alternatives to typical services such as those offered by Google for the private sector. The company offers an encrypted email service and a calendar service, as well as cloud storage. The company now has a total of 100 million users.

The upheavals in the US are also a recurring theme in customer communication – for example, in customer service or on social media, says Dach. "There's a clear trend: people are increasingly critical of US Big Tech platforms (...)." Internet users are now "taking a closer look at who processes their data and what happens to it." The company is already responding to the increased demand by expanding its own server capacity. It also plans to hire new employees and develop new products.

The extent to which Microsoft is suffering from the Trump effect was not immediately available. The company declined to respond to a query from the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) regarding possible customer declines from Europe.