« Nous voulons que l'Europe sache qu'elle peut compter sur nous », déclare le président de Microsoft

euronews (en français)

12/05/2025

« Nous voulons que l'Europe sache qu'elle peut compter sur nous », déclare le président de Microsoft

Nous voulons que l'Europe sache qu'elle peut compter sur nous », a déclaré Brad Smith, président de Microsoft, à Angela Barnes dans le dernier épisode de The Big Question.

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00:00We want to be a bridge across the Atlantic. They're not built on wheels.

00:04They're not going anywhere. And we want our European customers to know

00:07that they can count on Microsoft.

00:15Welcome to The Big Question, a series from Euronews where we speak to some of the most

00:20influential people in the world of business. And today we're joined by Brad Smith,

00:27the vice chair and president of Microsoft. Brad, it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us on

00:33the show. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me. You've recently announced

00:37Microsoft's five digital commitments to Europe. So first of all, can you just tell us about those?

00:44Our main point is we want Europe to know and we want our European customers to know

00:49that they can count on us. They can count on Microsoft. We want and we even think we need

00:55to be a force for, say, digital stability in a time of geopolitical volatility.

01:02So for us, it means protecting cybersecurity, protecting privacy, ensuring Europe's digital

01:08resilience, continuing to build out our infrastructure, our data centers across Europe

01:12and ensuring that they help boost European competitiveness across every part of the economy.

01:18Why is Europe so important to Microsoft's business plan?

01:23I don't think Microsoft would be the global success it is today without our longstanding

01:28presence in Europe. My first job at the company was in 1993, based in Paris. And the truth

01:36is it's more than a quarter of our global business. The European countries are so important. There's

01:41so much innovation that happens here.

01:49I just want to pick up on the AI and cloud ecosystem point that's in the digital commitments

01:55to Europe. How can the cloud and AI infrastructure help Europe's economic competitiveness?

02:01Well, when you think about Europe's strength as an economy, one of the things that we've always

02:06appreciated is what we think of as great domain expertise. Pharmaceuticals or machine tools or

02:13chemicals or automobiles or many other things, European companies are leaders. But if you look to the future,

02:21it will take more digital technology. It will take more cloud services. It will take more AI

02:26to keep all of these industries at the forefront of global competitiveness. And that's where our

02:32investments across Europe, we believe, are quite important.

02:36Do you think giant companies like Microsoft, of course, have a duty to do something to help

02:40Europe's struggling competitiveness?

02:42I think that's why we're in business. It is to provide technology that will make others,

02:48individuals and organizations, more successful. And in the world of business, that means boosting

02:55productivity growth, but it also means driving innovation. And that's where AI in particular,

03:00I think, is, as we like to say, the next great general purpose technology like electricity. It will

03:06reshape every part of the economy. And that is our responsibility, I think, to serve as a

03:12resource for every part of Europe. And that's why we are expanding our infrastructure across Europe.

03:19Yes, indeed. And you're planning to expand European data center capacity by 40% over the next two years

03:26in 16 countries. How many jobs can we expect that to create?

03:30As we build these data centers, and we will have more than 200 in these 16 countries by 2027,

03:37that creates a huge number of jobs in skilled labor, in construction, the whole supply chain,

03:44everything that goes into all of this infrastructure. But what really matters is, I think, more than that,

03:50it's the multiplier effect. It's what our customers are able to do with this technology.

03:57This is really designed to help fuel their growth. It is, I think, an engine of growth

04:02for what we like to describe as an AI economy, the economies of the world in an AI era.

04:08And Brad, as you expand in these other areas, you're also saying you will uphold Europe's digital

04:14resilience even when there's geopolitical volatility. Should Europe be relying more on European homegrown

04:20companies, do you think, to build its resilience?

04:23Well, I think that Europe will want a variety of resources on which to rely. And European governments

04:30use more taxpayer money to invest in creating or subsidizing homegrown alternatives. That's their

04:36decision to make. We think we have a role to play as well. And we'll collaborate with governments

04:42regardless of where they invest. The Draghi report itself really called out the importance and the

04:49opportunity of also using this American technology. And by building it here, I always like to say,

04:55these are huge facilities. They're not built on wheels. They're not going anywhere. They will be

05:01regulated by local laws, local regulations. We have to constantly earn the license to grow,

05:08if you will. And we're committed to doing that.

05:11Brad, some fear that the Trump administration could compel companies like Microsoft to provide

05:18access to sensitive European data. And I know you have pledged to take legal action if governments

05:24try to seize EU data. Is that going to be a tough one to balance, though?

05:29I actually don't think it will be. I know that there is a concern when I have gone to the White House,

05:35as I have, and I've shared with them the fact that this is a concern in Europe. Every single person

05:42I've talked to has said, we've never even heard of that idea. But we understand that we need to

05:49address it. And we have. And that's why we've said we are going to put into our contracts with

05:55European national governments and with the European Commission, a contractual obligation so that if we

06:01ever received an order anywhere in the world that would cause us or try to force us to suspend

06:07operations, say in Europe, we would go to court to contest it. I have every confidence that we

06:13would prevail in court. But we've also said that if we did not, we'll have a backup group of suppliers,

06:21partners here in Europe. We'll have our code, our software code and our source code stored in a secure

06:27repository in Switzerland. Basically, we want to allay people's concerns. I think we have a solution that does that.

06:34The EU says that targeting American tech companies is one of the cards that it could play in retaliation

06:41to Donald Trump's tariffs. How would you respond to that?

06:45Well, we want to be a bridge across the Atlantic. I think business can and should be a bridge across

06:53the Atlantic. But at the end of the day, governments need to make their own decisions. And that will be

06:59true in Europe as well as the United States. We will take whatever comes and we'll help our customers

07:04adapt and will adapt. But mostly, I want us to be a voice of reason, a voice that encourages the ties

07:14across the Atlantic that have been indispensable for eight decades now, since the end of the Second

07:21World War, to prevail, to use this as an opportunity for all of us in a way to step back and then recommit.

07:28Let's address the issues that bother people on either side of the Atlantic. But let's not forget how

07:35important these ties are, including for business.

07:39Indeed. Well, Brad Smith, thank you ever so much for sharing your insights with us. It's been an absolute

07:44pleasure to have you on The Big Question.

07:46Well, thank you. It is a big question.

07:47It really is. Thank you very much.

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