STACKIT and neuland.ai: AI sovereignty instead of hyperscaler dependency – "Made in Germany" as a clear statement

PRESS RELEASE 

STACKIT and neuland.ai: AI sovereignty instead of hyperscaler dependency – "Made in Germany" as a clear statement

Cologne/Neckarsulm, 5 May 2026 – Anyone processing their most sensitive company data on US infrastructures today has to accept that foreign authorities can gain access to it under certain conditions – even if the data is physically located in Europe. Legal instruments such as the US CLOUD Act create precisely this possibility of extraterritorial access. For many German and European companies, this has long ceased to be a theoretical footnote: it is about the protection of trade secrets, critical infrastructure and long-term competitiveness. Against this background, STACKIT and neuland.ai are setting an example and deliberately choosing a different path. The cloud provider of Schwarz Digits and the Cologne-based provider of an AI management and orchestration platform "Made in Germany" are entering into a strategic partnership that makes it clear: European companies do not need structural dependency on non-European platforms for Artificial Intelligence. They need sovereignty.

Together, STACKIT and neuland.ai are pursuing the goal of enabling companies in Germany and Europe to deploy AI in a sovereign, secure and scalable manner – and to do so on European infrastructure with a central AI platform as the control centre. The focus is on the combination of STACKIT as a sovereign cloud base and the neuland.ai HUB as a central AI layer: an AI architecture in which companies control their own applications and models instead of losing them in non-transparent ecosystems.

The framework conditions make this course more urgent than ever. With NIS‑2, DORA and the EU AI Act, regulatory pressure is increasing significantly. Companies are expected to use AI to become faster, more efficient and more resilient, but at the same time bear the responsibility of ensuring data sovereignty, auditability and compliance. Added to this is the geopolitical dimension: in a world in which alliances and values change dynamically, technological sovereignty becomes a strategic protective shield. The partnership between STACKIT and neuland.ai is positioned precisely in this area of conflict. It is aimed at organisations that do not want to run AI "somewhere in the cloud", but consciously rely on a European infrastructure with clear governance and sovereignty over data, models and access.

At the centre of this is the question of where applications run, under which law data is processed and what access rights third parties have in case of doubt. The cooperation between STACKIT and neuland.ai addresses exactly these points: STACKIT provides a sovereign cloud infrastructure with data centres in Germany, while the neuland.ai HUB as an AI management and orchestration platform ensures that AI applications remain manageable in this environment. Together, this creates an alternative architecture to US hyperscalers – with European data sovereignty, without compromising on performance and speed of innovation.

In concrete terms, it will be possible for neuland.ai customers to run their AI applications on the STACKIT Cloud. In addition, the neuland.ai HUB, the company's AI management and orchestration platform, will be available in the STACKIT Marketplace. Companies can use it to run different AI models and services in an environment based on data centres in Germany that is subject to strict security and compliance standards. In this way, initial pilot projects can be quickly transferred into regulated, scalable AI operation – without blind spots in data flows, permissions and regulatory requirements.

At neuland.ai, the partnership is also seen as a clear positioning for a European AI path. "Many companies are stuck in the field of tension between eagerness to experiment and loss of control," says Karl-Heinz Land, CEO of neuland.ai. "On the one hand, there is the desire to make AI applications quickly usable, and on the other, there is concern about shadow IT, non-transparent data flows and new liability risks – especially when critical applications run on infrastructures that are controlled outside the European legal framework. The neuland.ai HUB on STACKIT brings these worlds together: we make it possible to centrally manage different AI models and applications, consistently enforce governance rules and at the same time give specialist departments the freedom they need for innovation. For us, sovereign AI means: full transparency, full control and no hidden dependency on third parties."

STACKIT and neuland.ai will make their first joint public appearance at RÖDL's Dialog Digital 2026 on 5 May in Frankfurt. In their presentation "The path to AI sovereignty – insights and solutions as Customer Zero. Sovereign. Intelligent. Scalable. How AI 'Made in Germany' unties the compliance knot", the partners will show how regulatory requirements and ambitious AI strategies can be combined when infrastructure and platform are designed for sovereignty from the start. The event marks an early milestone in the cooperation, whose claim clearly goes beyond this: individual projects are to grow into a resilient, European ecosystem for sovereign AI.

Looking ahead, the plan is to expand this ecosystem to include other partners who will bring regulatory expertise and governance competence. In this way, step by step, an offering is to be created that accompanies companies from the legal and organisational classification of their AI projects to technical implementation and on to ongoing, auditable operations. The partnership now announced between STACKIT and neuland.ai forms the technological core for this: a sovereign cloud platform on one side, a powerful AI management and orchestration level on the other. Together, both are sending a clear signal: AI "Made in Germany" is not the slower option, but the more sovereign and long-term secure option – and thus a real alternative to structural dependency on US hyperscalers.

About STACKIT

STACKIT is the cloud provider of Schwarz Digits. External partners and customers in the European region can rely on the cloud services from which the Schwarz Group companies have been benefiting for years for their digital transformation. On the way to becoming the first European hyperscaler, STACKIT offers digital sovereignty that goes far beyond the market standard as well as individual approaches to implementing and operating cloud solutions. STACKIT currently operates four data centres – including one in Austria – and is building a fifth in Lübbenau. The team, based in Neckarsulm, Swabia, is thus paving the way to an independent Europe – digitally leading. As part of Schwarz Digits, STACKIT GmbH & Co. KG belongs to the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group.

About Schwarz Digits

Schwarz Digits is the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group. It offers compelling digital products and services that comply with high German data protection standards. Moving forward, Schwarz Digits guarantees the greatest possible digital sovereignty. Relying on this standard, Schwarz Digits provides the IT infrastructure and solutions for the extensive ecosystem of the Schwarz Group companies and develops them for the future. The sovereign core services of Schwarz Digits include cloud, cyber security, data and AI, communication and workspace. Schwarz Digits creates optimal conditions for the development of pioneering innovations for end customers, companies and public sector organisations.

About neuland.ai

neuland.ai is a leading AI technology company based in Cologne, which has developed a secure and scalable AI management and orchestration platform with the neuland.ai HUB. With extensive expertise in AI projects and digital transformation, neuland.ai offers reliable and trustworthy AI solutions that are individually tailored to the needs of its customers. The AI platform is already being used successfully thousands of times across various sectors and enables customers to increase productivity, automate processes and implement AI securely. Customers include abcbank, the Archdiocese of Cologne, the Griesemann Group, the German Economic Institute, RÖDL, SKW Schwarz, SVT and Thyssenkrupp. With over 50 employees, neuland.ai pursues the goal of making AI "Made in Germany" usable and strengthening the digital competitiveness of business and administration in the long term.

photo credits: neuland.ai | 05/05/2026