In a hangar on the outskirts of Toulouse, engineers pore over aircraft blueprints that contain decades of proprietary design knowledge. For years those digital assets sat on Amazon Web Services servers. Now Airbus has chosen Scaleway, the French cloud specialist, to bring roughly 70 of its most sensitive applications under European control.
The move, finalised in mid-July, marks a concrete step in a strategy the company laid out only weeks earlier. Airbus will transfer workloads spanning aircraft design, engineering, manufacturing and enterprise operations over the next two years. In total it has identified around 900 applications that require this level of protection.
The decision followed a competitive tender launched at the beginning of 2026 that assessed roughly 50 vendors. Scaleway prevailed on three grounds: technical strength, a commercial offer that could stand alongside the hyperscalers, and a willingness to let Airbus help shape its future product roadmap. The company will continue using AWS for non-critical functions such as its Skywise analytics platform and Case Management Assistant.
Shielding data from foreign laws
At the heart of the shift lies a familiar European anxiety. American legislation such as the CLOUD Act allows US authorities to compel companies to hand over data even when it is stored abroad. Airbus wants its most sensitive industrial and defence-related information beyond the reach of such extraterritorial powers.
Catherine Jestin, executive vice president digital at Airbus, put it plainly.
This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our broader commitment to European digital sovereignty. By integrating a trusted, high-performance cloud environment that keeps our critical data assets shielded from foreign extraterritorial laws, we are ensuring that our digital infrastructure keeps pace with our aerospace innovation, while maintaining control and resilience of our industrial operations.
She later added that the choice combined