Workday
Verified“American to the core, EU-renting at the edges.”
- FY2026 revenue
- $9.55B
- Founder voting power
- ~68%
- US revenue share
- ~75%
- Listing
- NASDAQ: WDAY
17 = midpoint of Control 14 & Data 20
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 88% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
15
Incorporated in Delaware and operated from California; the parent entity sits squarely under US jurisdiction. EU law (GDPR) reaches Workday's EU customer-facing subsidiaries, but the controlling entity and decision-making are American. Scored in the 'run outside the EU' band.
Why 15? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
State of incorporation
Workday FY2026 Form 10-K (SEC EDGAR) · as of 2026-01-31
Principal executive offices
Workday 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR) · as of 2026-01-31
EU presence is via subsidiaries/data residency, not the parent
Workday Newsroom · as of 2025-11-19
Control & Ownership
12
Founder-controlled via a dual-class structure: Class B carries 10 votes, Class A one. Co-founders Bhusri and Duffield hold ~68% of total voting power under a Stock Voting Agreement, and listing plus economic majority are US (NASDAQ). Foreign (US) control band.
Why 12? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Dual-class voting structure
Workday Form 8-K (SEC EDGAR) · as of 2026-02-06
Founder voting control
Workday Form 8-K (SEC EDGAR) · as of 2026-01-31
Listing venue
Workday FY2026 Form 10-K (SEC EDGAR) · as of 2026-01-31
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
22
Default infrastructure is Workday's own data centers (US: Ashburn, Lithia Springs, Portland; plus EU sites Dublin and Amsterdam) layered with AWS as primary public cloud and Google Cloud — all US-headquartered providers exposed to the CLOUD Act. The new EU Sovereign Cloud keeps EU data and operations under EU personnel, a real uplift, but it is built on top of AWS, so the underlying hyperscaler remains US. Scored at the top of the 'EU regions on a US hyperscaler' band.
Why 22? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
EU Sovereign Cloud runs on AWS
Workday Newsroom · as of 2025-11-19
Multi-cloud / hyperscaler dependence
diginomica (Google Cloud + Workday) · as of 2024-01-01
EU Sovereign Cloud operations under EU personnel
PR Newswire (Workday release) · as of 2025-11-19
Operations & People
18
HQ in California, US leadership (CEO Aneel Bhusri reinstated Feb 2026), ~75% of revenue from the US, ~20,400 employees globally with US center of gravity, and USD reporting. US-centered operations.
Why 18? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Revenue geography
Workday FY2025 figures via Statista/Business Quant · as of 2025-01-31
FY2026 total revenue
Workday Newsroom (Q4 FY2026 results) · as of 2026-02-24
CEO / leadership
Workday Newsroom · as of 2026-02-09
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
- ?
Exact share of EU customers actually on the EU Sovereign Cloud vs. default AWS/GCP/Workday-DC hosting
The EU Sovereign Cloud is GA in 2026; if uptake is low, most EU data still sits on standard US-hyperscaler-backed infrastructure with full CLOUD Act exposure.
- ?
Precise current global headcount and EU workforce share
Reported figures cluster around ~20,400 but the FY2026 10-K exact number and EU breakdown were not directly extracted; affects operations confidence.
- ?
Whether the EU Sovereign Cloud's AWS layer is contractually shielded from US compelled-disclosure orders
EU-personnel operation reduces but does not eliminate parent-company (AWS Inc.) legal exposure; determines true data-sovereignty value.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
SEAL is designed to assess cloud providers; this is an analogous mapping for an enterprise SaaS company, not a formal certification.
Strategic
US-headquartered, founder-controlled, NASDAQ-listed; strategic direction set in California, not the EU.
Legal & jurisdictional
Delaware incorporation, US parent; EU law reaches only customer-facing subsidiaries via GDPR.
Data & AI
EU Sovereign Cloud offers EU data residency and EU-personnel operations, but is built on AWS and is opt-in / GA 2026.
Operational
US HQ, US leadership (CEO Bhusri), ~75% US revenue, USD reporting.
Supply chain
Core dependence on US hyperscalers AWS (primary) and Google Cloud.
Technological
Proprietary US-developed platform; AI processing tied to US-provider infrastructure outside the sovereign offering.
Security & compliance
Mature enterprise certifications and EU advisory-board oversight on the sovereign cloud; end-to-end encryption claimed.
Environmental sustainability
Not evaluated in this profile.
EU alternatives
EU-headquartered (Walldorf) HR suite and a direct Workday competitor, but runs heavily on US hyperscalers and has large US operations.
Munich-based HR platform for European SMBs; EU-incorporated and EU-operated, though SMB-focused rather than enterprise.
Dutch-rooted ERP/HR/finance vendor; EU heritage but majority-owned by private equity with US/global investors.
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