Data Centers

Alibaba Expands in Germany as Well

Alibaba Cloud is opening new regions in Europe and expanding its data centers in Germany. Three AI services for enterprises round out the push.

By Alec Chizhik September 28, 2026 3 min read

Alibaba Cloud plans to run more data centers worldwide, with Europe as a key focus. The first new region launches in the Netherlands in October, with Finland and Turkey to follow within a year. The German site is growing too.

Key takeaways

Alibaba Cloud is opening three new regions and expanding in Germany. The Netherlands kick off in October, with Finland and Turkey following within twelve months.
By 2032 the group aims to operate more than 20 gigawatts of data center capacity. The build-out hinges on an investment plan of around 49 billion euros.
Three new AI services target production use. According to Alibaba, one of them will cut token costs by roughly half.

New Regions in Three Countries

At its in-house Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, Alibaba Cloud has announced its next stage of expansion. Within twelve months, the group will open cloud regions in Turkey, Finland and the Netherlands for the first time. The Dutch region is due to go live as early as October 2026. Finland will become Alibaba’s first region in northern Europe.

Existing locations are growing in parallel, including Germany and France. Outside Europe, Alibaba is expanding in Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. The group currently operates 107 availability zones across 31 regions.

What is a cloud region? A cloud region is a geographic location where a provider operates several data centers. A region usually contains multiple availability zones, each supplied with power and network connectivity independently. Customers choose the region and thereby determine where their data resides.

Where Data Resides Determines Which Law Applies

Alibaba attributes the expansion to demand for cloud and AI services that are locally available. For businesses, the location has a legal consequence: in most jurisdictions, the server location determines which law applies to the hosted data, as heise explains. Anyone storing data in a German region is generally operating within the German legal framework.

Feifei Li, CTO and head of international business at Alibaba Cloud, sees a shift among customers. In Li’s observation, customers are now deploying AI in live operations. The experimental phase, Li says, is coming to an end.

20 Gigawatts by 2032

The expansion in Europe is part of a larger goal. By 2032, Alibaba aims to operate more than 20 gigawatts of data center capacity worldwide. According to heise, this could generate around 147 billion euros in cloud revenue.

The build-out is funded by a three-year plan for AI and cloud. According to Business Standard, it amounts to the equivalent of around 49 billion euros.

Three AI Services for Enterprises

Alongside the data centers, Alibaba unveiled three AI services. Smart Studio lets companies offer and sell model interfaces under their own brand, marketing an AI model as their own product without training it themselves. Smart Fusion bundles multiple AI models behind a single interface and, according to Alibaba, will cut token costs by around 50 percent. An application only calls one interface, even though different models are working in the background.

The third service, Smart Video, is an AI agent that produces finished videos of up to one hour in length from a text prompt.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will Alibaba Cloud launch in the Netherlands?

The region is due to go live in October 2026. Finland and Turkey will follow within twelve months.

Is Alibaba also building something new in Germany?

Alibaba is expanding its existing site in Germany. The group has not announced a new region in Germany.

How much does the expansion cost?

Alibaba is funding it from a three-year AI and cloud plan worth the equivalent of around 49 billion euros. The target is more than 20 gigawatts of capacity by 2032.