Adds European context in paragraph 2, details on the partnership in bullet point summary

May 20 (Reuters) - French defence group Thales TCFP.PA and Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google Cloud have signed a deal to launch a new European cloud service in Germany that will be operationally and legally independent from Google, the companies said on Wednesday.

The European Union has been pushing to develop homegrown technology solutions as it seeks to reduce reliance on foreign providers, particularly in cloud computing, a sector dominated by large U.S. companies.

• Thales will launch a new German entity entirely staffed and managed in Germany

• The cloud offering is designed to meet digital sovereignty and regulatory requirements of German public sector organisations

• Thales to fully own and control the dedicated cloud infrastructure

• The solution is currently available in preview, general rollout expected by the end of 2026

• The name of the new company will be unveiled in the coming months

• The technology and the operating model will be identical to Thales' French cloud service S3NS