OVHcloud, France’s biggest cloud provider, expects to launch its first AI model in early 2027, CEO Octave Klaba told Reuters on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 — and roughly half of its connected cloud capacity is still free for new clients. Why it matters: a European cloud operator with spare power, its own model in training and a pitch on sovereignty is positioning itself as a home-grown alternative in a market dominated by US providers.
October 20, 2026
What happened
Speaking to Reuters after OVHcloud published its annual earnings, Klaba said the company has 250 megawatts of capacity connected, of which 140 MW is in operation — leaving about 110 MW ready to take on new business without building anything first. That is a pointed contrast with rivals who must keep constructing data centres to serve regional demand.
On the product side, Klaba said OVHai Workspace — a productivity platform running workplace applications such as email, tuned on OVHcloud’s own internal data — will release its first pilot shortly. The company’s first AI model follows next year.
The model, and the argument behind it
The model will use a mixture-of-experts design, the architecture that routes each task to specialised sub-models rather than running the whole network every time. Klaba told Reuters back in June that OVHcloud had begun work on its own models using Jupiter, described as Europe’s fastest supercomputer, with ambitions to become a European challenger to France’s Mistral.
Klaba also renewed his criticism of Europe’s state-backed computing programmes. Because their financing is split between the EU and member states, he argues, the money naturally fragments into national projects — a race of national data centre schemes, none of them backed by a customer base large enough to match. Last month he called national strategies for the EU’s planned AI gigafactories doomed to failure, and said a proposed public commitment of €200 million to buy AI services over five years was too small to underpin the private investment required.
Why it matters
Strip away the rhetoric and two hard facts remain: OVHcloud has power and capacity available now, in a market where both are the binding constraint, and it is spending that advantage on a sovereignty pitch — European data, European infrastructure, soon a European model. Whether a first model arriving in early 2027 can credibly challenge Mistral, let alone US frontier labs, is unproven, and Klaba’s criticism of public programmes is also self-interested: a private operator with empty capacity benefits when buyers skip state schemes and rent from him instead. But for European organisations that need AI capacity without a US provider, OVHcloud just made its offer much more concrete.
Frequently asked questions
When will OVHcloud launch its first AI model?
CEO Octave Klaba told Reuters on October 20, 2026 that the company expects to launch its first AI model in early 2027. It will use a mixture-of-experts design.
How much spare capacity does OVHcloud have?
Klaba said the company has 250 megawatts connected, with 140 MW in operation, leaving roughly 110 MW available for new clients without new construction.
What is OVHai Workspace?
It is OVHcloud’s productivity platform, tuned on the company’s internal data and running workplace apps such as email. Its first pilot is due shortly, ahead of the company’s first AI model in early 2027.
Sources: Reuters (October 20, 2026)