OVHcloud announced on Thursday the launch of a dedicated unit for the defense sector, the data center operator citing requests from several European defense ministers for support in the digital transformation of the armies.
Among the needs, the French group mentioned in a statement artificial intelligence-enabled command, drone orchestration, and communication interoperability, “all with a strong expectation of technological independence from non-European suppliers.”
As the leading European provider of native cloud services, OVHcloud has long defended its strategic autonomy against American competitors, with CEO Octave Klaba already declaring a focus on a pan-European solution for cloud and artificial intelligence.
First-half revenue reached 555.3 million euros, a 5.5% increase, while adjusted EBITDA rose by 8.3% to 227.2 million euros in comparable data.
The group also confirmed its annual forecasts, including organic revenue growth between 5% and 7%.
OVHcloud noted in the statement that it had anticipated its supplies since the beginning of the first half rather than the second, securing most of its needs and achieving savings of around 10 million euros, partially offsetting “the exceptional inflation of memory and disk components.”
Additionally, the group built a stock of around 50 million euros in memory and disk components in the first half to secure availability and fix prices before new increases, to be paid for by “dedicated exceptional financing.”
In Paris, around 08:35 GMT, the stock was down 2.3% to 8.85 euros after gaining 2.2% at the start of trading.
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; French version by Coralie Lamarque and Augustin Turpin, edited by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
