Amazon
Verified“American to the core; the EU's landlord, not its tenant.”
- Listing
- NASDAQ: AMZN
- Net sales (FY2024)
- $638B
- Employees
- ~1.56M
- AWS cloud share
- ~28-30%
12 = midpoint of Control 10 & Data 14
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 12 sourced facts across 9 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 3 open questions hold confidence at 90% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
12
Incorporated in Delaware and run from Seattle; the ultimate parent is a US corporation subject to the CLOUD Act and FISA. EU subsidiaries exist but resolve to US control.
Why 12? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Amazon.com, Inc. was originally incorporated in Washington in 1994 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1996, with principal offices in Seattle.
Amazon FY2024 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2025-02-06
AWS European Sovereign Cloud GmbH is a 100% subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., so the EU entity's ultimate parent is a US corporation.
EU Cloud Patterns sovereignty assessment · as of 2025
A December 2025 legal opinion for the German Federal Interior Ministry (University of Cologne) concluded that data location in Europe is legally irrelevant while the provider is subject to US jurisdiction (CLOUD Act).
Eliatra / Looming Tech analysis of Cologne opinion · as of 2025-12
Control & Ownership
8
NASDAQ-listed with single-class one-vote-per-share stock held mostly by US institutions and Jeff Bezos; voting and economic control are firmly American.
Why 8? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Amazon common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under ticker AMZN with one vote per share and no dual-class structure.
Amazon FY2019 10-K Exhibit 4.6 (SEC) · as of 2020-01-30
Jeff Bezos beneficially owns roughly 9% of Amazon (about 964 million shares) — the largest individual stake — with Vanguard and BlackRock the largest institutions.
The Wrap / SEC beneficial ownership filings · as of 2025
Top institutional holders Vanguard (~7.4%) and BlackRock (~6.1%) are US asset managers, concentrating economic ownership in the United States.
Lexchart Amazon beneficial owners 2025 · as of 2025
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
15
AWS is the dominant global hyperscaler and the infrastructure many EU services run on; EU regions and the new European Sovereign Cloud add residency but the US parent retains ultimate control.
Why 15? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
AWS is the largest cloud infrastructure provider worldwide, holding roughly 28-30% global market share, ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Synergy Research via Statista · as of 2025
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud launched its first region in Brandenburg, Germany, is EU-incorporated and being transitioned to EU-citizen operation, backed by a EUR 7.8B investment.
Amazon EU newsroom · as of 2025-09
Critics (including a French MP and Austrian provider Anexia's CEO) and a German ministry legal opinion argue AWS infrastructure cannot be sovereign because the US parent remains bound by the CLOUD Act and FISA.
Eliatra sovereignty analysis · as of 2025-12
Operations & People
12
Headquartered in Seattle with US leadership and USD reporting; a global ~1.56M workforce includes large EU operations, but the company's center of gravity is American.
Why 12? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
As of December 31, 2024 Amazon employed approximately 1,556,000 full-time and part-time employees globally.
Amazon FY2024 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2024-12-31
Amazon reported net sales of $638.0 billion for FY2024 (up 11% YoY) and net income near $59 billion, reporting in US dollars.
Amazon 2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K) · as of 2024-12-31
Principal corporate offices and senior leadership are based in Seattle, Washington, USA.
Amazon FY2024 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2025-02-06
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
3 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Has any court actually compelled AWS to hand over EU-resident data under the CLOUD Act, or does the AWS European Sovereign Cloud's EU governance structure withstand such a request?
Untested in court; the practical enforceability of US extraterritorial law against the EU entity remains theoretical, affecting the infra and legal scores.
- ?
What share of Amazon's ~1.56M workforce and of its revenue is actually based in the EU?
Amazon has large EU operations (logistics, AWS regions); precise EU headcount/revenue would refine the operations score but would not change US control.
- ?
How much of European public-sector and enterprise data already runs on standard AWS EU regions versus the new Sovereign Cloud?
Determines real-world exposure; most EU AWS usage is on standard regions still subject to the US parent.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL) is designed to certify cloud providers; this is an analogous mapping for assessment purposes, not an actual SEAL certification or score.
Strategic
US-headquartered, US-controlled hyperscaler; Europe is a customer base and host region, not the locus of strategic control.
Legal & jurisdictional
Ultimate parent is a US corporation subject to the CLOUD Act and FISA; a December 2025 German ministry legal opinion deemed EU data location irrelevant under US jurisdiction.
Data & AI
Extensive EU regions and the new EU-incorporated, EU-operated European Sovereign Cloud offer real data residency, but the US parent retains ultimate ownership.
Operational
AWS European Sovereign Cloud is governed by EU-resident staff and an EU advisory board; standard AWS EU operations still resolve to US management.
Supply chain
Hardware, core engineering, and corporate functions are US-anchored; the global supply chain is not EU-controlled.
Technological
Core AWS technology, IP, and roadmap are developed and controlled in the US.
Security & compliance
Holds broad EU compliance attestations (C5, GDPR alignment) and is building an EU trust-service-provider model, but CLOUD Act exposure undercuts full sovereignty assurance.
Environmental sustainability
Amazon reports renewable-energy commitments, but this index did not verify EU-specific sustainability metrics.
EU alternatives
EU-headquartered (Roubaix), Euronext Paris-listed, founder-controlled cloud provider outside US jurisdiction; a genuine sovereign alternative to AWS for many workloads.
French cloud provider owned by Iliad Group; EU-controlled infrastructure, though smaller in service breadth than AWS.
German-owned hosting and cloud provider; EU jurisdiction and EU data centers, strong for compute/IaaS but a narrower managed-services catalog than AWS.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
Report Incorrect Data
Found an error in this company's profile? Help us improve our data by submitting a correction.
Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology