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Mastercard

Verified

“US payments network, EU-localizing edges.”

Operating HQ
🇺🇸 Purchase, New York
where it's run
Legal domicile
🇺🇸 Delaware, USA
where it's incorporated
Net revenue (FY2025)
$32.8B
Listing
NYSE: MA
Workforce
~70% intl
EU data centers
12+ & growing
26/100
Sovereign: Not
Control ↑
15
Data →
36

26 = midpoint of Control 15 & Data 36

ConfidenceHigh (88%)

Sovereignty Quadrant

Control ↑ who owns & governs the company  ·  Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.

Where your data lives → Who controls the company → 8 companies · fully non-EU (0/0) TikTok — Data 32, Control 24 Google — Data 16, Control 14 Youtube — Data 14, Control 16 Ionos — Data 90, Control 90 Disneyplus — Data 16, Control 12 Telegram — Data 34, Control 14 Carrefour — Data 100, Control 32 Corriere — Data 100, Control 100 Microsoft — Data 26, Control 14 X — Data 14, Control 16 Amazon — Data 14, Control 10 Amazon — Data 66, Control 0 Bild — Data 100, Control 100 Reddit — Data 14, Control 10 Netflix — Data 24, Control 20 LinkedIn — Data 14, Control 16 Reuters — Data 26, Control 0 Pinterest — Data 12, Control 12 Discord — Data 16, Control 20 AliExpress — Data 18, Control 12 Twitch — Data 18, Control 16 Samsung — Data 62, Control 4 Canva — Data 24, Control 20 Spotify — Data 30, Control 68 Apple — Data 16, Control 16 GitHub — Data 16, Control 10 Uber — Data 16, Control 16 Salesforce — Data 20, Control 14 Deepl — Data 70, Control 78 Airbnb — Data 18, Control 18 Notion — Data 22, Control 16 Shopify — Data 18, Control 18 Dropbox — Data 14, Control 10 HubSpot — Data 24, Control 10 Stripe — Data 30, Control 30 Zalando — Data 52, Control 88 Figma — Data 18, Control 10 SAP SE — Data 68, Control 78 Atlassian — Data 18, Control 18 Proton — Data 72, Control 54 Miro — Data 100, Control 44 Klarna — Data 44, Control 42 Ecosia — Data 60, Control 92 Zoom — Data 20, Control 14 Adyen — Data 84, Control 84 GitLab — Data 26, Control 14 Slack — Data 14, Control 20 Hetzner — Data 84, Control 96 Deezer — Data 62, Control 66 Typeform — Data 100, Control 52 OVHcloud — Data 82, Control 94 Tutanota — Data 100, Control 100 BlaBlaCar — Data 54, Control 76 Qwant — Data 56, Control 88 Bitwarden — Data 28, Control 20 Contentful — Data 34, Control 48 Personio — Data 34, Control 58 Ikea — Data 34, Control 100 Meta Platforms — Data 18, Control 10 Whatsapp — Data 14, Control 12 Instagram — Data 28, Control 22 Avast — Data 60, Control 0 Paypal — Data 24, Control 32 Kaspersky — Data 56, Control 0 36 15 Mastercard
Mastercard — verified peers — automated estimate (0–50 pillars, normalized)

Every number below traces to 12 sourced facts across 6 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

15/100
6 facts · 3 sources · mixed confidence
Legal & Jurisdiction
18

Incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Purchase, New York. The parent entity and group are squarely under US jurisdiction; the EU-facing entity (Mastercard Europe SA, Belgium) is a subsidiary, not the controlling entity, so EU law reaches operations but not ultimate control.

Why 18? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Delaware, USA

State of incorporation

Mastercard FY2025 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2026-02-11

2000 Purchase St, Purchase, NY

Principal executive offices

Mastercard FY2025 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2026-02-11

Mastercard Europe SA, Waterloo BE

European operating entity exists in EU

Belgian KBO / Companyweb (BE0448038446) · as of 2026-06-12

Control & Ownership
12

NYSE-listed under ticker MA. Voting power sits with Class A shares (one vote each); Class B shares are non-voting. The largest holders are US institutional managers (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street). Both voting control and the economic majority are US-based.

Why 12? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
NYSE: MA

Listing venue and ticker

Mastercard FY2025 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2026-02-11

No votes (Delaware exceptions only)

Class B common stock is non-voting

Mastercard FY2025 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2026-02-11

Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street

Largest shareholders are US asset managers

Fintel institutional ownership (MA) · as of 2026-06-12

Data →

Where your data lives and who can reach it

36/100
6 facts · 4 sources · mixed confidence
Data & Infrastructure
38

Mastercard operates a dozen-plus data centers in Europe (mix of owned sites and colocation) and is investing ~€250m in three new French data centers explicitly to localize payment infrastructure under EU data-sovereignty pressure, with a commitment to authorize more European payments locally from H2 2026. This is materially better than EU-region-on-a-US-hyperscaler, but the network is still US-controlled and the parent is reachable under US law (incl. potential CLOUD Act exposure), so it is not EU-sovereign infrastructure.

Why 38? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
More than a dozen DCs in Europe

European data center footprint

DatacenterDynamics · as of 2025-10-23

~€250m, three sites (Paris)

New France data center investment for EU localization

DatacenterDynamics · as of 2025-10-23

More EU payments authorised locally H2 2026

Commitment to local European authorization

Mastercard Europe newsroom (Perspectives 2026) · as of 2026-01-01

Operations & People
32

Headquartered and led from the US with USD reporting, but the workforce is heavily international (roughly 70% employed outside the US) and Mastercard Europe SA in Waterloo is a genuine regional decision center with global and European executives and ~2,000+ FTEs. Mixed, but the strategic and financial center of gravity is US.

Why 32? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
~70% employed internationally

Workforce geography

Mastercard FY2025 10-K (human capital) · as of 2026-02-11

~2,086 FTEs, Waterloo BE

European HQ staffing and function

AmCham Belgium / Companyweb · as of 2026-06-12

US dollar

Reporting currency

Mastercard FY2025 Form 10-K (SEC) · as of 2026-02-11

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 split of Mastercard's European data centers between owned facilities and third-party colocation, and whether any rely on US hyperscalers.

    Could move the infra score up or down; pure colo on EU operators is more sovereign than capacity on US cloud.

  • ?

    Where European cardholder transaction data is actually stored and processed today, and how much will be authorized in-region once the H2 2026 localization goes live.

    Central to data-residency and CLOUD Act exposure; current state may be more US-dependent than the 2026 commitment implies.

  • ?

    Precise total employee headcount and the EU-specific share as of the latest filing.

    Refines the operations score; figures cited are approximate and partly third-party.

EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens

SEAL was designed to assess cloud service providers; applying it to a global card network is an analogous mapping for comparability, not a certification.

Strategic

US-headquartered, US-controlled global network; EU is a region, not the strategic center despite localization moves.

weak

Legal & jurisdictional

Delaware parent under US law; EU subsidiary (Mastercard Europe SA) is reachable by EU regulators but not the controlling entity.

weak

Data & AI

Real and expanding EU data-center footprint and in-region processing commitment, but network ultimately US-controlled with potential US-law reach.

moderate

Operational

Genuine European HQ in Waterloo with executive functions and ~70% international workforce, but USD reporting and US top leadership.

moderate

Supply chain

Vendor and hardware supply chain for EU infrastructure not verified from primary sources.

not assessed

Technological

Core switching/clearing technology and IP owned and governed by the US parent.

weak

Security & compliance

European Cyber Resilience Centre in Belgium; operates under EU regulatory oversight (e.g., as a payment scheme), but governance sits with US parent.

moderate

Environmental sustainability

EU-specific data-center energy/sustainability commitments not verified here.

not assessed
EU alternatives
🇪🇺 European Payments Initiative (Wero) wero-wallet.eu EU-controlled

Bank-backed EU wallet and account-to-account scheme built explicitly as a European alternative to the US card networks.

🇧🇪 Bancontact Payconiq bancontact.com with caveats

Belgian domestic payment scheme; strong national reach but limited cross-border EU coverage and partly co-badged with international networks.

🇫🇷 Cartes Bancaires (CB) cartes-bancaires.com with caveats

French domestic card network governed by French banks; sovereign within France but typically co-badged with Visa/Mastercard for international use.

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).

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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology