I guess Lidl targets German Mittelstand and DAX40 companies that already have outsourced to other cloud vendors or are in trouble with their legacy infrastructure.
How many of the startups you have in mind didn't switch their infra once they grew? I know not a single one.
Yeah, but the thing is, why would they switch away from AWS/Azure/... unless forced to by regulation? Existing cloud providers can scale to planet sized businesses.
The press releases by the Schwarz Group never even mention AWS, only indirectly by pointing out "digital sovereignty" when using a Germany-based company instead of a "foreign cloud hoster".
Calling Stackit an "AWS competitor" is most likely just editorialization by the 3rd party media.
The target customer are companies which are just barely moving away from self-hosted hardware.
Same reasons some folks in US have US-first mentality.
On top of obvious reason everybody knows damn too well - any US 3-letter agency doesn't give a nanofraction of a f*k about privacy and will use any data to gain any advantage, and specifically treats non US-citizens as subhumans when it comes to several human rights. Geolocation is only theoretical guarantee when stakes are so high.
How many of the startups you have in mind didn't switch their infra once they grew? I know not a single one.