OVHcloud pushes for pan-European AI strategy as revenue grows in Q1

By Leo Marchandon

Jan 8 (Reuters) - The ⁠CEO of ⁠OVHcloud said ‍on Thursday that the cloud computing firm was seeking a cross-border solution to the European Union's artificial intelligence infrastructure push, after ‍the group reaffirmed its guidance for the 2026 financial year.

Talking ​to analysts after OVHcloud reported 6% organic growth in first-quarter revenue, CEO Octave Klaba said ​the company had been discussing AI gigafactory plans with the European Commission, but expressed concerns over the bloc's "country-by-country approach" to AI initiatives.

The French group has started discussions with potential ​partners across six or seven European countries to establish cross-border infrastructure with interconnected facilities, he said, while criticizing the lack of focus on customers.

"For ​the moment, it's just the initiative to create the assets, but nobody talks about how it will ‌be used," Klaba said.

BRAND RECOGNITION KEY FOR LONG-TERM GOAL

OVHcloud's revenue rose to 275.3 million euros ($321.4 million) in the quarter that ​ended in October. Public cloud services, which ⁠make up 21% of its revenue, grew 15.8% to 58.2 million euros, while private cloud services, including dedicated servers, increased ‌4% to 167.2 million euros.

Net revenue retention rate was 105% on a like-for-like basis, demonstrating higher spending by existing customers, it said.

However, its long-term revenue target of 2 ‌billion euros per year is challenged by muted customer acquisition and brand recognition.

"We are ‌not good at the acquisition of new customers today," Klaba said, adding that OVHcloud's goal was for every European citizen to recognize the company by 2030.

Klaba said that inventory ‍planning shielded OVHcloud from rising memory and disk prices in the 2025 and 2026 financial years, but warned component shortages ⁠could drive up capital spending in 2027.

OVHcloud also announced plans to expand its 3-AZ regions—a model where infrastructure is split across three locations to prevent outages—to Berlin, following earlier launches in Paris and Milan.

($1 = 0.8565 euros)

(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)

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