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Good Morning Business, the big interview. Driven by the performance of his company and after having handed over the reins 7 years ago, he is back at the helm of his group to turn things around, and he is on our set this morning. Hello Octave Klaba.
Founder of OVH Cloud. Thank you for being on BFM Business. You are back at the helm, I was saying back in the media too. You rather got us used to quite rare public speaking. What is the issue today? Communicating as a crisis communication and showing that OVH Cloud is here and has a lot of ambitions.
No, we have ambition and we are trying to communicate about what we will become in the next 5 years, because that's why I returned to the investment cycle of 5 years and more, what OVH will be in 2030, and that's it, we see very well, we have ambitions.
What is your assessment of these first weeks back at the helm?
I haven't really left. I imagine so. Yes, you were still there, but now you are fully operational. I imagine you work 7 days a week. Not bad, not bad, but it's fascinating. I've been working 7/7 on the company for 26 years. But no, we have enormous potential because we see AI, cloud, especially in Europe. And actually, my ambition for OVH is to become systemic in Europe, meaning to be able to work with all types of clients, but not only in France, also in Europe, and that's what really differentiates us from everything happening in Europe. But we need to be a European giant for that, so we need to make acquisitions because there are still small competitors. We will also need to grow through that mechanism. Today, we have a billion in revenue. I'm setting the target at 2 billion. Moreover, how do we reach 2 billion in revenue? In which countries? What investments? What organization? There are acquisitions. Yes, we are working on acquisitions, but rather product acquisitions today. Not yet client typology, it's more products, but in Europe. In Europe. Yes, in Europe. But our second largest country is the US. We do a little over 100 million in revenue in the US. The first is France, we do about half.
So you do 100 million? You do 1 billion today, you aim for 2 billion, so times 2, by what horizon? Let me just start.
Yes, but I will come back with the dates. But it's in terms of organization, it's not the same.
Okay. In terms of organization, but the typologies of how you work together, in which country, and what type of go-to-market, you need to reorganize a little bit. But then what is the battle plan, Klaba, to achieve that?
Well, is it that we need to be in all countries in Europe, we can't just be in France and a little bit in Germany, a little bit in Italy. We have just started our presence with a region of three data centers in Italy. We are preparing Berlin. We are already in Frankfurt, and then behind, we will gradually go to all countries with this presence of three data center regions that clients expect.
Octave Klaba, aren't you afraid that this signal, that is, without Octave Klaba at the helm, there is no OVH Cloud, that it weakens the image and power of the company? It seems like you are necessarily needed for it to work.
Uh, today I wouldn't really say that. I would say that we have an excellent executive committee, all the teams below to move the company. What is needed is more speed between vision, strategy, and execution. And that's why at the board level, we decided to change and combine the two jobs, chairman and CEO.
Doesn't it demoralize you to see the investments that Amazon and Microsoft are making in AI? We're not talking about millions, we're talking about tens, hundreds of billions even sometimes.
Yes, we have to see how they will get a return on investment, because in AI, the return on investment of all this money that is put in, well, it's not obvious for now to see how the cycle will turn, who will pay at the end, who will buy AI and at what price, and whether it will make the whole investment cycle roll.
So do you position yourself on the side of those who say there will be an AI bubble, a correction? Is it called a bubble? Will it affect all players?
