France announced Tuesday a 1.8 million euro ($2.1 billion support plan for its cloud computing sector in a bid give French companies in this sector global scale.
According to a statement by the government, the plan includes 667 millions euros of public financing, 444million of European Union financing and 680million euros of private cofinancing.
According to the government, 23 research and development projects were already selected by the government, which will receive 421 million euros in public financing.
“Today we implement a long-held ambition: to bring about the emergence of French and European industrial champions,”Cedric O, Minister for Digital Affairs, stated in a statement that close to two billion euros would soon be mobilised for this sector by 2025.
O announced the initiative in the offices French cloud computing firm OVHcloud. It went public last week after becoming one the top ten players in this industry.
Some French policymakers believe that OVHcloud, the largest European-based cloud service provider, could be an alternative to the U.S. dominance of the market, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
In October, Thales, a French defense firm, announced a partnership with Google to offer cloud computing services that are state-vetted for the storage and protection of sensitive data in France.
Article: France plans 1.8 bln euro support for cloud computing industry