Amazon Web Services (AWS) outlined a major commitment to Europe, pledging to pump close to €8 billion into establishing an independent cloud and creating thousands of jobs to maintain the security of data in the region.

The company plans to invest €7.8 billion into the European sovereign cloud project over the next 16 years, with Germany selected as its base of operations. AWS plans to launch its first regional site in the nation by end-2025 and stated its plans could contribute €17.2 billion to the country’s GDP by 2040.

AWS also expects to support “an average 2,800 full-time equivalent jobs in local German businesses”, in the building, maintenance, engineering and telecoms industries.

In addition, the company plans to “create new highly skilled permanent roles” including software engineers, systems developers and product architects.

“This is part of our commitment that all day-to-day operations of the AWS European sovereign cloud will be controlled exclusively by personnel located” in the European Union, said the company.

AWS noted it invested more than €150 billion into Europe since 2010 and already employs in excess of 150,000 people.

Max Peterson, VP of sovereign cloud, said the latest investment reinforces AWS’ commitment to providing advanced controls, privacy protections and security functions for the cloud. “We’re investing heavily in new local talent and infrastructure”.

The company explained the independent European cloud would use the same architecture as its AWS Regions, but remain separate from them. It stated the sovereign cloud would meet “stringent operational autonomy and data residency requirements”.