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, the vice
00:27chair and president of Microsoft. Brad, it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us on the show.
00:33Thank you very much for joining us.
00:35Thank you for having me.
00:36You've recently announced Microsoft's five digital commitments to Europe. So first of all,
00:43can 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. So for us,
01:03it means protecting cybersecurity, protecting privacy, ensuring Europe's digital resilience,
01:09continuing to build out our infrastructure, our data centers across Europe, and ensuring
01:13that 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 is,
01:36it'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
02:20to the future, it will take more digital technology. It will take more cloud services. It will take more
02:25AI to 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 designed
03:58to help fuel their growth. It is, I think, an engine of growth for what we like to describe as an AI economy,
04:05the economies of the world in an AI era.
04:08And Brad, as you expand in these other areas, you're also saying you will uphold Europe's digital
04:14resilience even when there's geopolitical volatility. Should Europe be relying more on European homegrown
04:20companies, do you think, to build its resilience?
04:23Well, I think that Europe will want a variety of resources on which to rely. And European governments use more
04:31taxpayer money to invest in creating or subsidizing homegrown alternatives. That's their decision to
04:37make. We think we have a role to play as well. And we'll collaborate with governments regardless of where
04:43they invest. The Draghi report itself really called out the importance and the opportunity of also using
04:51this American technology. And by building it here, I always like to say, these are huge facilities.
04:56They're not built on wheels. They're not going anywhere. They will be regulated by local laws,
05:03local regulations. We have to constantly earn the license to grow, if you will. And we're committed
05:10to doing that.
05:11Brad, some fear that the Trump administration could compel companies like Microsoft to provide access
05:18to sensitive European data. And I know you have pledged to take legal action if governments try to
05:25seize EU data. Is that going to be a tough one to balance, though?
05:29I actually don't think it will be. I know that there is a concern when I have gone to the White House,
05:35as I have, and I've shared with them the fact that this is a concern in Europe. Every single person I've
05:42talked to has said, we've never even heard of that idea. But we understand that we need to address it.
05:50And we have. And that's why we've said we are going to put into our contracts with European national
05:56governments and with the European Commission, a contractual obligation so that if we ever received
06:02an order anywhere in the world that would cause us or try to force us to suspend operations,
06:08say in Europe, we would go to court to contest it. I have every confidence that we would prevail in
06:14court. But we've also said that if we did not, we'll have a backup group of suppliers, partners here
06:22in Europe. We'll have our code, our software code and our source code stored in a secure repository in
06:28Switzerland. 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
06:40play in retaliation to Donald Trump's tariffs. How would you respond to that?
06:45Well, we want to be a bridge across the Atlantic. I think business can and should be a bridge across
06:53the Atlantic. But at the end of the day, governments need to make their own decisions. And that will be
06:58true in Europe as well as the United States. We will take whatever comes and we'll help our customers
07:04adapt and will adapt. But mostly, I want us to be a voice of reason, a voice that encourages the ties
07:14across the Atlantic that have been indispensable for eight decades now since the end of the Second
07:21World War to prevail, to use this as an opportunity for all of us in a way to step back and then recommit.
07:28Now, let's address the issues that bother people on either side of the Atlantic. But let's not
07:35forget how important these ties are, including for business.
07:39Indeed. Well, Brad Smith, thank you ever so much for sharing your insights with us. It's been an
07:44absolute pleasure to have you on The Big Question.
07:46Well, thank you. It is a big question.
07:47It really is. Thank you very much.
Comments