Regional and sovereign clouds
Clouds that keep data and operations in a chosen country or bloc, under its law.
Definition, not a sourced statistic
What it is
A regional cloud is hosted and usually owned in one country or region. A sovereign cloud goes further: it is designed so that data, operations and support stay under the legal control of a chosen country or bloc, which can include local staff, local ownership and local keys. The word is used loosely, so what counts is what the contract guarantees.
Who it suits
- Public bodies and regulated sectors with rules on where data sits and who can reach it.
- Organisations that want a provider under the same law as themselves.
- Teams that want compute near users in a country without a large cloud region.
Common contract shapes
- Public cloud in a region. Self-serve instances hosted in one country or bloc.
- Sovereign or dedicated region. A region or private cloud run for a government or sector, with extra controls.
- Framework or government purchase route. Some providers are listed on public sector buying frameworks or empanelment schemes.
Providers use their own names for these shapes, so compare what is promised, not what it is called. The contract shapes guide explains each one.
What to ask
- Egress and data transfer. Is data out charged, and does any traffic, such as support or telemetry, leave the country?
- Service levels. Does the service level agreement cover the sovereign controls as well as uptime?
- Data residency and access. Which law governs the provider and its parent company, and can a foreign authority compel access?
- Security certifications. Which national schemes does it hold, for example C5 or a government empanelment, and for which services?
- Export controls and sanctions. Are the accelerators it offers cleared for import and use in that country?
- Exit. Can data and keys be returned and deleted in-country, under a written procedure?
- Who holds the encryption keys, and where are the staff who can access the systems?
The full list is on the printable buyer's checklist. For rules on chips and where they can go, see export controls and compute thresholds.
On this site
Entries listed here because their own summary or checked facts on this site fit this type. An entry can fit more than one type, and a provider missing here may still offer it. This is a list, not a ranking, and in name order. We link to providers for prices.
Providers
- Civo: A cloud provider built around managed Kubernetes, with GPU compute, private cloud and sovereign regions.
- Core42: A UAE-based provider of sovereign AI infrastructure for governments and enterprises. It offers a sovereign AI cloud, a sovereign public cloud and a private cloud.
- Denvr Dataworks: An AI cloud that describes itself as Canadian, offering on-demand and reserved GPU compute, managed inference and shared NVMe storage, with data centres in Canada and the US.
- E2E Networks: An India-based cloud provider offering rentable NVIDIA GPUs, virtual machines, managed Kubernetes and AI model endpoints.
- Exoscale: A European cloud provider offering compute instances, managed Kubernetes, storage, databases and GPU servers across several European zones.
- HUMAIN: A company that describes itself as a full-stack AI ecosystem, covering sovereign data centres, cloud infrastructure, generative AI models and applications.
- Mistral Compute: An AI cloud from Mistral AI that describes European-hosted GPU capacity with orchestration and model-building tools.
- NAVER Cloud Platform: A South Korean cloud platform offering infrastructure, platform and software services for corporations, with GPU servers and the CLOVA AI services.
- Sakura Internet: A Japanese hosting and cloud company offering Sakura Cloud, rental and dedicated servers, and GPU services under the Koukaryoku name. Services are hosted in Japan.
- Scaleway: A European cloud provider offering GPU instances for training, inference and graphics work.
- STACKIT: A European cloud platform with compute, storage, Kubernetes, managed databases and AI services. It positions itself around data hosted in Europe and digital sovereignty.
- Taiga Cloud (Northern Data Group): A European GPU cloud from Northern Data Group offering bare metal and GPU as a service on NVIDIA H100 and H200 hardware.
- Verda: A cloud platform for AI workloads, offering GPU instances, InfiniBand clusters and serverless GPU containers. Storage options include block storage and a shared filesystem.
- Yotta (Shakti Cloud): An Indian data centre operator whose Shakti Cloud offers GPU virtual machines, bare metal and serverless GPU compute hosted in India.
Related
- Glossary: Sovereign cloud, Data residency, Egress, SLA (service level agreement).
- Guide: Can I build a data centre in X?
- Policy register
- Country profiles
- Compare offer types
Other offer types: Hyperscale cloud instances · GPU clouds and bare metal · Marketplaces and aggregators · Decentralised and community networks · Managed inference and serverless GPU · Chip-maker and accelerator clouds · National and institutional HPC, and free or funded programmes · Colocation, wholesale, powered shell and build-to-suit · On-premises hardware, and leasing or financing it · Capacity brokers, reserved contracts, secondary and spot markets · Edge and telecom sites, and converted sites
Definitions and questions written in our own words, checked on 3 October 2026 and due for review by 3 January 2027. Sourced facts stay on the provider, programme and policy pages this page links to. This is general information to help you ask better questions. It is not legal, tax or procurement advice. For export controls, sanctions and contracts, check the primary rules and talk to a qualified adviser. Something wrong? Tell us.