Half of OVHcloud capacity is available, AI model launching in early 2027, CEO says

By Leo Marchandon

Oct 20 (Reuters) - OVHcloud expects to launch its first AI model in early 2027, its chief executive said on Tuesday, while adding that about half of the French company's connected cloud was available for new clients.

The available capacity means the cloud operator can onboard clients without spending on construction, while rivals must invest in additional capacity to serve regional demand.

The company has 250 megawatts of capacity connected, of which 140 MW is in operation, leaving 110 MW ready to take on new business, CEO Octave Klaba told Reuters after OVH published its annual earnings report.

Klaba also said OVHai Workspace, a productivity platform tuned on OVH's internal data running workplace apps such as email, would release its first pilot shortly, followed by the company's first AI model next year.

The model will use a mixture-of-experts design, which routes tasks to specialised sub-models, Klaba said. He had told Reuters in June that OVH had started its own AI models on Jupiter, Europe's fastest supercomputer, positioning the company as a potential European challenger to Mistral.

Klaba reiterated his criticism of Europe's state-backed computing programmes, saying their financing — half EU, half member state — naturally pushed projects toward national initiatives.

He said this logic had produced a race of national data centre projects, none backed by a customer base to match.

Last month, Klaba had said that national strategies for the European Union's planned AI gigafactories were "doomed to failure" and that a proposed €200 million public commitment to buy AI services over five years was too small to underpin the required private investment.

(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)