Shopify
Verified“Canadian-controlled, US-cloud-powered — not an EU company.”
- Listing
- Nasdaq + TSX (SHOP)
- Revenue (FY2025)
- $11.56B
- GMV (FY2025)
- $378.4B
- Employees
- ~7,600
17 = midpoint of Control 17 & Data 17
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 13 sourced facts across 9 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 3 open questions hold confidence at 86% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
22
Incorporated federally in Canada (CBCA) and run from Ottawa; not an EU entity. EU law reaches it only through GDPR as a processor with EU establishments, not via any EU-domiciled controlling entity.
Why 22? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Shopify Inc. is incorporated at the Canadian federal level under the Canada Business Corporations Act.
SEC EDGAR entity data (CIK 0001594805) · as of 2026-02
Shopify's principal executive offices are at 151 O'Connor Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
SEC EDGAR entity data (CIK 0001594805) · as of 2026-02
A German data protection authority (Rhineland-Palatinate) scrutinized Shopify-merchant data flows to US-based Cloudflare, citing US CLOUD Act access concerns under GDPR.
Engity blog (Shopify EU-US data transfer case) · as of 2022-12-28
Control & Ownership
12
Founder-controlled by Canadian Tobias Lütke (~40% of voting power), primary US (Nasdaq) listing, and an economic majority held overwhelmingly outside the EU.
Why 12? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
As at December 31, 2025, Tobias Lütke controlled shares representing 40.09% of Shopify's aggregate voting power via the Founder Share and multiple voting shares.
Globe and Mail / Shopify proxy disclosure · as of 2025-12-31
Shopify transferred its US listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq, with trading on Nasdaq from March 31, 2025, under ticker SHOP.
TechCrunch · as of 2025-03-19
Shopify maintains a secondary listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange under ticker SHOP.
TechCrunch · as of 2025-03-19
The Founder Share lets Lütke's voting power scale to at least 40% but is capped so aggregate voting power cannot exceed 49.9%.
Glass Lewis · as of 2022-06
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
22
EU data residency is offered by default for new European merchants, but it runs on Google Cloud Platform — a US hyperscaler — leaving it exposed to US CLOUD Act access. Better than US-only hosting, but not EU-owned infrastructure.
Why 22? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Google Cloud is Shopify's primary cloud infrastructure provider; the partnership was announced in March 2018.
Shopify Engineering · as of 2023
New European merchants have store, order, and customer personal data stored at rest in Europe by default, across multiple Google Cloud Platform regions.
Shopify Help Center (Onward transfers) · as of 2025
Because the underlying provider Google Cloud is US-owned, EU-hosted data remains subject to the US CLOUD Act regardless of region.
Engity blog (Shopify EU-US data transfer case) · as of 2022-12-28
Operations & People
10
Headquarters in Ottawa, Canadian/US leadership, USD reporting, and a workforce centered in North America. Europe is a market, not the operating base.
Why 10? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Shopify reports its financial results in US dollars; full year 2025 revenue was $11,556 million.
Shopify Q4/FY2025 results (via StockTitan / SEC 8-K) · as of 2025-12-31
Shopify is headquartered and operationally run from Ottawa, Canada.
SEC EDGAR entity data (CIK 0001594805) · as of 2026-02
Shopify reported approximately 7,600 employees in its FY2025 Form 10-K, with operations concentrated in North America.
Shopify FY2025 Form 10-K (SEC EDGAR) · as of 2025-12-31
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
- ?
What share of European merchant data actually sits in EU GCP regions versus North America, given dynamic cross-region rebalancing?
Shopify rebalances storage across GCP regions and can move data geographically, so the real-world EU residency footprint may be smaller than the 'by default' policy implies.
- ?
What is the precise current employee headcount and its geographic split?
The 10-K (~7,600) and third-party trackers (~8,900) disagree; the EU/North America split would sharpen the operations score.
- ?
Did the German (Rhineland-Palatinate) DPA action against Shopify-merchant US transfers reach a binding ruling?
A formal finding would be direct evidence of EU enforceability and CLOUD Act exposure, raising or lowering legal confidence.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL) is designed to certify cloud service providers, not e-commerce platforms — this is an analogous mapping for comparison, not a certification or an assessment Shopify has undergone.
Strategic
Founder-controlled Canadian firm listed primarily on Nasdaq; strategic direction sits outside the EU with no EU governance anchor.
Legal & jurisdictional
Incorporated in Canada (CBCA), run from Ottawa; a non-EU, Five Eyes jurisdiction. EU reach is via GDPR processor obligations only.
Data & AI
EU data residency at rest by default for new European merchants — but on US-owned Google Cloud, so CLOUD Act exposure persists.
Operational
HQ Ottawa, North-America-centered workforce, USD reporting; EU is a market, not an operating base.
Supply chain
Core dependency on Google Cloud (US) as primary cloud, with AWS for some workloads; no EU-sovereign infrastructure layer.
Technological
Proprietary platform on a US hyperscaler; no EU-controlled technology stack or open European alternative for control.
Security & compliance
Provides GDPR tooling, DPA, data-residency options and subprocessor transparency, but compliance is layered over US-cloud infrastructure.
Environmental sustainability
Not evaluated for this profile; Shopify publishes sustainability commitments but they were not verified against EU SEAL criteria here.
EU alternatives
German open-commerce platform (Schöppingen); EU-headquartered with EU data hosting and native EU-regulation support.
Paris-based open-source e-commerce platform; EU-controlled with the option to keep data in Europe.
Stockholm-based headless commerce platform aimed at brands; EU-headquartered with European data hosting.
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
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology