Bernd Wagner, Managing Director of Google Cloud in Germany

"AI-optimized products and services will become commodities – and no company will be able to afford falling behind"

Bernd Wagner, Managing Director of Google Cloud in Germany, discusses data sovereignty, the sustainability of AI, and the future of Germany as a technology hub in this interview.

Since 2015, Google Cloud has been developing AI applications. What solutions are available now, specifically for companies, and what makes them stand out?

WAGNER Vertex AI provides companies with a customized environment where Google’s most essential AI components are integrated. At its core is Gemini, our most powerful and versatile multimodal AI for creating and processing text, audio, images, and videos. Additionally, companies have access to a wide range of partner products. Data sovereignty remains with the company managing the solution, allowing them to meet governance and compliance requirements confidently.

Does Google Cloud have access to customer company data, and—for example could it potentially bring it to the US market?

WAGNER Google Cloud cannot use customer data for its own purposes. Data is encrypted by default, and the company manages the “key” through its own team. This process has minimal performance impact because our servers in our cloud regions are specifically configured for it. With sufficient capacities in Frankfurt and Hanau (forming the Frankfurt cloud region), we ensure mutual backups and disaster recovery within the country. Furthermore, the cloud region Berlin-Brandenburg is emerging as another hub.

We believe in Europe and Germany as innovation drivers. By 2030, Google will invest 1 billion euros in expanding IT infrastructure in Germany. Additionally, we support innovative local start-ups.