The EU rules against us have offended Trump, but Microsoft has pledged to protect European people in “geopolitical volatility.”
Microsoft on Wednesday promised to boost its presence in Europe and protect its data from European citizens against the backdrop of rising “geopolitical volatility.”
The Technology Titan pledge comes as President Donald Trump’s return overthrew US-Europe relations and reversed decades of US policy.
Trump is surrounded by rules from the European Union, ruled by US giants, including Microsoft, threatening retaliation for the move.
However, Microsoft president Brad Smith put a positive note on his visit to Brussels.
“We’re the moment when business needs to be a cross-Atlantic bridge,” Smith said.
Microsoft is expanding its data center operations in 16 European countries and helping to build an artificial intelligence “ecosystem” on the continent.
We also want to establish partnerships with European cloud players. Currently, US tech companies (Amazon, Google, Microsoft) dominate the European cloud market.
But Europe’s reliance on US technology has been questioned ever since the threat of Trump’s return and imposing tariffs, taking over Greenland and cutting back on Ukraine’s support.
The concern is that Washington can use its technical advantage as a weapon in any standoff with Brussels if its transatlantic connection is already tense.
For example, Europeans could reduce access to US servers if Trump, who has grown in relations with high-tech titans, chooses to use this leverage.
Microsoft’s Smith hinted at the scenario in a blog post released Wednesday without naming Trump, describing it as “impossible.”
However, Smith vowed that if Microsoft was asked to suspend or suspend cloud operations in Europe, it would “contest such measures quickly and fiercely.”
“If we are today, wherever we are in the world, we will go to court if we order from the data center here to force Europe to suspend or suspend operations and support,” Smith said in Brussels.
“I am grateful that it is a real concern for the European people,” he added.
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com