Microsoft has pledged to legally challenge any potential attempt by any government to force the company to suspend its cloud operations in Europe, issuing a sweeping commitment aimed at reassuring European customers amid growing geopolitical volatility and concerns over digital sovereignty.
At the heart of the plan is a legally binding promise to contest in court any directive that seeks to suspend Microsoft’s cloud services hosted in the European Union.
“In the unlikely event we are ever ordered by any government anywhere in the world to suspend or cease cloud operations in Europe, we are committing that Microsoft will promptly and vigorously contest such a measure using all legal avenues available, including by pursuing litigation in court,” Smith stated.
Smith said Microsoft’s vow will be written directly into contracts with European national governments and the European Commission, elevating what might otherwise be a corporate pledge into a formal, legally binding commitment. He noted that Microsoft has experience fighting lawsuits from the previous Trump administration and the Obama administration.
“We went to court four times against the Obama administration over the protection of customer data and privacy, including European data. We went to court against the Trump administration to protect the rights of employees who are immigrants,“ he said at the conference. ”Twice we’ve gone all the way to the United States Supreme Court. We not only go to court—we tend to win the cases we bring.”
Should Microsoft lose in court, however, contingency plans are in place to ensure continuity of services, he said. These include agreements with European partners and the storage of critical software code in secure repositories in Switzerland, which would allow European entities to maintain cloud operations without U.S. involvement, if needed.
While Smith noted that the risk of such a shutdown order is “exceedingly unlikely” and not currently under discussion in Washington, he said that the concern is real and growing among European officials.
“It’s not actually a topic that people are even talking about in Washington,” Smith said. “But we know we need to address it, and we know that Europeans need to be able to count on us.”
Alongside its legal pledge, Microsoft said it will grow its cloud footprint in Europe by 40 percent, place local operations under European oversight, keep user data stored and processed within the EU, and boost cybersecurity efforts, with Smith describing the latter as a “crusade.”
“A crusade to protect the cybersecurity of all of the countries of the NATO alliance, of the European Union, and other countries around the world,” Smith said, adding that Microsoft has provided more than $500 million of free technology and financial assistance to Ukraine since the war erupted in 2022.
“We have never stopped. We have included not just threat intelligence that we actively share and we have never stopped, but also active work to disrupt cyberattacks against Ukraine,” Smith said. “We want people in Europe to know that they can always count on Microsoft for our cybersecurity support.”
Microsoft’s announcement comes amid a broader European push to assert greater control over its digital infrastructure.
Smith acknowledged these pressures, describing Microsoft’s commitments not as resistance to Europe’s evolving regulatory framework but as alignment with it.
“We’re committed not only to building digital infrastructure across Europe,“ he said. ”We’re committed to respecting these laws and the role that the rule of law plays across this continent.”
