Snowflake and Orange Business plan sovereign AI platform for France

Snowflake says it plans to work with Orange Business on a sovereign data and AI platform for regulated organizations in France. The proposed model calls for local operations, contracting and data residency, but the companies have not disclosed a definitive agreement or launch date.

The proposed operating model would put administration, monitoring, support and incident response in the hands of European teams subject to European Union law. Customers would contract directly with Orange Business, according to Snowflake, while regulated data would remain in France.

The planned service would combine Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud with Orange Business operations and sovereign infrastructure described as including providers such as Bleu. Snowflake said the architecture would use Apache Iceberg, an open table format, and S3-compatible storage to support data portability and continued access if a provider relationship ends. The focus on local controls also appears in NetApp’s proposed Keystone Sovereign pilots in Germany and France.

The proposed environment is intended to enter France’s ANSSI SecNumCloud qualification process; Snowflake did not say the service has obtained that qualification. Bleu describes its own SecNumCloud 3.2 qualification as still in progress, while saying its data centers, customer data and operations are located in France. Orange has said compliance with France’s “cloud de confiance” doctrine requires SecNumCloud 3.2 qualification and applicable legal requirements.

Snowflake said the model and related capabilities remain subject to ongoing development, definitive partner agreements, regulatory qualification and final commercial terms. It characterized availability and deployment timing as forward-looking rather than a commitment to deliver particular features by a particular date.