00:00We want to be a bridge across the Atlantic. They're not built on wheels.
00:04They're not going anywhere. And we want our European customers to know
00:07that they can count on Microsoft.
00:15Welcome to The Big Question, a series from Euronews where we speak to some of the most
00:20influential people in the world of business. And today we're joined by Brad Smith,
00:27the vice chair and president of Microsoft. Brad, it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us on
00:33the show. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me. You've recently announced
00:37Microsoft's five digital commitments to Europe. So first of all, can you just tell us about those?
00:44Our main point is we want Europe to know and we want our European customers to know
00:49that they can count on us. They can count on Microsoft. We want and we even think we need
00:55to be a force for, say, digital stability in a time of geopolitical volatility.
01:02So for us, it means protecting cybersecurity, protecting privacy, ensuring Europe's digital
01:08resilience, continuing to build out our infrastructure, our data centers across Europe
01:12and ensuring that they help boost European competitiveness across every part of the economy.
01:18Why is Europe so important to Microsoft's business plan?
01:23I don't think Microsoft would be the global success it is today without our longstanding
01:28presence in Europe. My first job at the company was in 1993, based in Paris. And the truth
01:36is it's more than a quarter of our global business. The European countries are so important. There's
01:41so much innovation that happens here.
01:49I just want to pick up on the AI and cloud ecosystem point that's in the digital commitments
01:55to Europe. How can the cloud and AI infrastructure help Europe's economic competitiveness?
02:01Well, when you think about Europe's strength as an economy, one of the things that we've always
02:06appreciated is what we think of as great domain expertise. Pharmaceuticals or machine tools or
02:13chemicals or automobiles or many other things, European companies are leaders. But if you look to the future,
02:21it will take more digital technology. It will take more cloud services. It will take more AI
02:26to keep all of these industries at the forefront of global competitiveness. And that's where our
02:32investments across Europe, we believe, are quite important.
02:36Do you think giant companies like Microsoft, of course, have a duty to do something to help
02:40Europe's struggling competitiveness?
02:42I think that's why we're in business. It is to provide technology that will make others,
02:48individuals and organizations, more successful. And in the world of business, that means boosting
02:55productivity growth, but it also means driving innovation. And that's where AI in particular,
03:00I think, is, as we like to say, the next great general purpose technology like electricity. It will
03:06reshape every part of the economy. And that is our responsibility, I think, to serve as a
03:12resource for every part of Europe. And that's why we are expanding our infrastructure across Europe.
03:19Yes, indeed. And you're planning to expand European data center capacity by 40% over the next two years
03:26in 16 countries. How many jobs can we expect that to create?
03:30As we build these data centers, and we will have more than 200 in these 16 countries by 2027,
03:37you know, that creates a huge number of jobs in skilled labor, in construction, the whole supply chain,
03:44everything that goes into all of this infrastructure. But what really matters is, I think, more than that,
03:51it's the multiplier effect. It's what our customers are able to do with this technology. This is really
03:58designed to help fuel their growth. It is, I think, an engine of growth for what we like to describe as an AI
04:05economy, the economies of the world in an AI era. And Brad, as you expand in these other areas,
04:12you're also saying you will uphold Europe's digital resilience, even when there's geopolitical
04:16volatility. Should Europe be relying more on European homegrown companies, do you think,
04:21to build its resilience? Well, I think that Europe will want a variety of resources on which to rely. And
04:29European governments use more taxpayer money to invest in creating or subsidizing homegrown
04:35alternatives. That's their decision to make. We think we have a role to play as well. And we'll
04:40collaborate with governments regardless of where they invest. The Draghi report itself really called
04:47out the importance and the opportunity of also using this American technology. And by building it here,
04:54I always like to say, these are huge facilities. They're not built on wheels. They're not going
05:00anywhere. They will be regulated by local laws, local regulations. We have to constantly earn the license
05:06to grow, if you will. And we're committed to doing that. Brad, some fear that the Trump administration
05:15could compel companies like Microsoft to provide access to sensitive European data. And I know you have
05:21pledged to take legal action if governments try to seize EU data. Is that going to be a tough one to
05:28balance, though? I actually don't think it will be. I know that there is a concern when I have gone to
05:35the White House, as I have, and I've shared with them the fact that this is a concern in Europe. Every
05:42single person I've talked to has said, we've never even heard of that idea. But we understand that we need
05:48to address it. And we have. And that's why we've said we are going to put into our contracts with European
05:55national governments and with the European Commission, a contractual obligation so that if
06:00we ever received an order anywhere in the world that would cause us or try to force us to suspend
06:07operations, say in Europe, we would go to court to contest it. I have every confidence that we would prevail
06:14in court. But we've also said that if we did not, we'll have a backup group of suppliers, partners
06:22here in Europe. We'll have our code, our software code and our source code stored in a secure repository
06:28in Switzerland. Basically, we want to allay people's concerns. I think we have a solution that does that.
06:35The EU says that targeting American tech companies is one of the cards that it could play in retaliation
06:41to Donald Trump's tariffs. How would you respond to that? Well, we want to be a bridge across the
06:48Atlantic. I think business can and should be a bridge across the Atlantic. But at the end of the
06:55day, governments need to make their own decisions. And that will be true in Europe as well as the United
07:00States. We will take whatever comes and we'll help our customers adapt and will adapt. But mostly,
07:07I want us to be a voice of reason, a voice that encourages the ties across the Atlantic that have
07:16been indispensable for eight decades now, since the end of the Second World War, to prevail, to use this
07:24as an opportunity for all of us in a way to step back and then recommit. Now, let's address the issues
07:30that bother people on either side of the Atlantic. But let's not forget how important these ties are,
07:37including for business. Indeed. Well, Brad Smith, thank you ever so much for sharing your insights
07:43with us. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on The Big Question. Well, thank you. It is a big
07:47question. It really is. Thank you very much.
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