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Oracle Expands Cloud Cover with Data Centers in Sweden, Italy

Oracle offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, US REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Oracle offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, US REUTERS/Brian Snyder
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Oracle Expands Cloud Cover with Data Centers in Sweden, Italy

Oracle offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, US REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Oracle offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, US REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Oracle said on Wednesday it has opened its first cloud region in the Nordics in Stockholm, along with one in Milan, Italy, as the pandemic increased demand for cloud computing tools from private- and public-sector organizations.

Cloud regions refer to the geographical location of data centers, allowing customers near that region to get faster access to their data.

Cloud computing companies such as Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have been setting up new data centers across Europe to cater to clients shifting from in-house digital storage and computing to leased cloud servers.

Oracle already has cloud regions in Germany, the Netherlands, France, the UK and Switzerland in Europe. Including the two new regions, it will have facilities in 36 regions worldwide, with plans to add eight more by the end of next year.

Reuters said that the company has already signed contracts with potential customers in Europe and is planning to open a second region in France and one in Spain.

"European organizations want to store their data in Europe or in their local country where possible," said Carla Arend, senior program director at research firm IDC.

Best known for its database software, Oracle lags its bigger rivals in the race for cornering the cloud computing market, but its total cloud revenue still rose 22% to $2.7 billion in the latest second quarter.

Earlier this year, Oracle said it will migrate the most complicated computer programs of companies to its cloud for free, in a bid to catch a new wave of potential cloud-computing clients.

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Google Offers Buyouts to More Workers amid AI-driven Tech Upheaval and Antitrust Uncertainty

The new Google logo is seen in this illustration taken May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The new Google logo is seen in this illustration taken May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Google Offers Buyouts to More Workers amid AI-driven Tech Upheaval and Antitrust Uncertainty

The new Google logo is seen in this illustration taken May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The new Google logo is seen in this illustration taken May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Google has offered buyouts to another swath of its workforce across several key divisions in a fresh round of cost cutting coming ahead of a court decision that could order a breakup of its internet empire. The Mountain View, California, company confirmed the streamlining that was reported by several news outlets, said The Associated Press.

It’s not clear how many employees are affected, but the offers were made to staff in Google's search, advertising, research and engineering units, according to The Wall Street Journal. Google employs most of the nearly 186,000 workers on the worldwide payroll of its parent company, Alphabet Inc.

“Earlier this year, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance for US-based Googlers, and several more are now offering the program to support our important work ahead," a Google spokesperson, Courtenay Mencini, said in a statement.

“A number of teams are also asking remote employees who live near an office to return to a hybrid work schedule in order to bring folks more together in-person,” Mencini said.

Google is offering the buyouts while awaiting for a federal judge to determine its fate after its ubiquitous search engine was declared an illegal monopoly as part of nearly 5-year-old case by the US Justice Department. The company is also awaiting remedy action in another antitrust case involving its digital ad network.

US District Judge Amit Mehta is weighing a government proposal seeking to ban Google paying more than $26 billon annually to Apple and other technology companies to lock in its search engine as the go-to place for online information, require it to share data with rivals and force a sale of its popular Chrome browser. The judge is expected to rule before Labor Day, clearing the way for Google to pursue its plan to appeal last year's decision that labeled its search engine as a monopoly.

The proposed dismantling coincides with ongoing efforts by the Justice Department to force Google to part with some of the technology powering the company’s digital ad network after a federal judge ruled that its digital ad network has been improperly abusing its market power to stifle competition to the detriment of online publishers.

Like several of its peers in Big Tech, Google has been periodically reducing its headcount since 2023 as the industry began to backtrack from the hiring spree that was triggered during pandemic lockdowns that spurred feverish demand for digital services.

Google began its post-pandemic retrenchment by laying off 12,000 workers in early 2023 and since then as been trimming some divisions to help bolster its profits while ramping up its spending on artificial intelligence — a technology driving an upheaval that is starting to transform its search engine into a more conversational answer engine.