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Here

Verified

“EU-owned map, US-hosted engine.”

Operating HQ
🇳🇱 Eindhoven, Netherlands
where it's run
Legal domicile
🇳🇱 Netherlands
where it's incorporated
Founded
1985 / 2015
Control
DE automakers
Core cloud
AWS (US)
CEO
M. Nefkens
57/100
Sovereign: Partial
Control ↑
73
Data →
41

57 = midpoint of Control 73 & Data 41

ConfidenceMedium (78%)

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) Google — Data 16, Control 14 TikTok — Data 32, Control 24 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 66, Control 0 Amazon — Data 14, Control 10 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 AliExpress — Data 18, Control 12 Twitch — Data 18, Control 16 Samsung — Data 62, Control 4 Canva — Data 24, Control 20 Discord — Data 16, 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 Shopify — Data 18, Control 18 Mastercard — Data 36, Control 16 Dropbox — Data 14, Control 10 Notion — Data 22, Control 16 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 Tomtom — Data 54, Control 90 Avast — Data 60, Control 0 41 73 Here
Here — verified peers — automated estimate (0–50 pillars, normalized)

Every number below traces to 13 sourced facts across 9 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 4 open questions hold confidence at 78% — they lower confidence, never the score.

Control ↑

Who legally and economically controls the company

73/100
7 facts · 6 sources · mixed confidence
Legal & Jurisdiction
85

Incorporated and operationally run in the Netherlands. HERE Global B.V. (Eindhoven) is the named GDPR data controller, so EU law plainly reaches the operating entity. No foreign parent sits above it; the company itself is the top operating vehicle. This is close to a textbook EU legal footprint.

Why 85? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
HERE Global B.V., Netherlands

Legal entity and incorporation

HERE GDPR statement / Dun & Bradstreet · as of 2026-06-12

HERE Global B.V., Kennedyplein 222-226, 5611 ZT Eindhoven, NL

Named GDPR data controller

HERE privacy supplement · as of 2026-06-12

KvK 17168515, Oost-Brabant; HQ Eindhoven

Dutch trade-register registration

Dun & Bradstreet company profile · as of 2026-06-12

Control & Ownership
60

Voting control is European: the German automaker consortium (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz) holds the majority, reinforced by Bosch and Continental (each ~5%, German). But economics are heavily mixed: Intel ~15% (US) and Mitsubishi + NTT 30% via COCO Tech Holding B.V. plus Pioneer (Japan) together put ~45%+ of the cap table outside the EU. EU voting majority, materially non-EU economics, and privately held (no EU listing venue).

Why 60? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
German automakers Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz

Majority voting control

Wikipedia (Here Technologies) · as of 2026-06-12

Mitsubishi + NTT 30% via COCO Tech Holding B.V.

Japanese stake

HERE press release · as of 2020-02-06

Intel ~15%; Bosch & Continental ~5% each (DE)

US stake

Continental press release / Wikipedia · as of 2026-06-12

Privately held; no public listing

Listing status

Wikipedia (Here Technologies) · as of 2026-06-12

Data →

Where your data lives and who can reach it

41/100
6 facts · 5 sources · mixed confidence
Data & Infrastructure
25

This is the weak spot. HERE's core cloud infrastructure, data platform, analytics and AI/ML deployment have run on AWS for ~a decade, formalized in a 10-year, $1bn agreement announced Jan 2025. AWS is a US hyperscaler subject to the CLOUD Act, regardless of which region the data sits in. EU data-controller status, ISO 27001 and GDPR safeguards help on paper, but the actual production stack is US-owned cloud, not EU-sovereign infrastructure.

Why 25? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
AWS (US hyperscaler), ~10 years

Core cloud provider

HERE + AWS press release · as of 2025-01-06

10-year, $1 billion AWS agreement

Cloud deal scale

HERE + AWS press release · as of 2025-01-06

ISO 27001 certified; GDPR controller in NL

Security/compliance posture

HERE GDPR statement · as of 2026-06-12

Operations & People
65

Operationally EU-leaning but not EU-pure. HQ is Eindhoven (NL) with major engineering in Berlin and a long-standing large site in Chicago (the Navteq legacy). CEO Mike Nefkens is American (ex-HP, ex-Resideo). Leadership and workforce are spread across the EU, US and Asia. Center of gravity is European, but the top of the house and a chunk of operations are not.

Why 65? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Eindhoven, Netherlands

Headquarters

Dun & Bradstreet · as of 2026-06-12

Mike Nefkens (American), since Jan 2 2024

CEO

HERE press release / leadership page · as of 2026-06-12

Eindhoven (HQ), Berlin, Chicago

Major operating sites

LeadIQ / company profiles · as of 2026-06-12

Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →

What we don’t know 4 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
  • ?

    Exact, current per-shareholder voting and economic percentages (Audi/BMW/Mercedes split; whether the German consortium still holds a clean >50% voting majority after the 2019 Mitsubishi/NTT round)

    Directly affects the ownership score; the EU voting-majority claim rests on press reporting, not a published 2025/26 cap table

  • ?

    Whether HERE's EU customer/user data is contractually pinned to AWS EU regions (eu-central, eu-west) or can transit US regions

    Determines real-world data-residency exposure under the CLOUD Act; only general SCC/transfer language is published

  • ?

    Whether HERE operates any of its own EU data centers alongside AWS, or is fully AWS-hosted

    Could modestly raise the infra score if material sovereign-controlled compute exists

  • ?

    Current total headcount and EU-vs-non-EU workforce split (public figures range ~3,700 to ~9,000)

    Affects operations score precision and the EU center-of-gravity claim

EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens

SEAL here is an analogous mapping, not a certification: the framework targets cloud providers, and HERE is a cloud customer, so the rows below are an interpretive read of its sovereignty posture, not an audited result.

Strategic

EU automaker-controlled location platform; strategically a European mapping asset positioned against Google/TomTom

strong

Legal & jurisdictional

Dutch-incorporated HERE Global B.V. is the operating entity and GDPR data controller; EU law reaches it directly

strong

Data & AI

Core data platform and AI/ML run on AWS (US hyperscaler); CLOUD Act exposure despite EU controller status

weak

Operational

HQ Eindhoven and large Berlin engineering, but American CEO and significant Chicago/US + Asia footprint

moderate

Supply chain

Critical dependency on a single US cloud vendor (AWS) under a 10-year, $1bn lock-in

weak

Technological

Owns proprietary map data and AI mapmaking IP (EU-developed), but the compute substrate is US-owned

moderate

Security & compliance

ISO 27001 certified, GDPR controller in NL, SCCs for transfers; data-residency specifics not publicly pinned

moderate

Environmental sustainability

No HERE-specific sovereignty-relevant sustainability data verified in this pass

not assessed
EU alternatives
🇳🇱 TomTom tomtom.com with caveats

Dutch-listed (Amsterdam), founder-influenced EU mapping peer; cleaner EU ownership/listing than HERE, but also leans on hyperscaler cloud and partners with Microsoft/Google for some services

🇫🇷 IGN / national mapping agencies ign.fr with caveats

State-owned EU geospatial data (and peers like Germany's BKG); fully sovereign but not a drop-in commercial automotive/location-API replacement

🇺🇸 Google Maps Platform mapsplatform.google.com not an EU alternative

The dominant alternative but US-owned and US-hosted; listed only for context, not as a sovereignty upgrade

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