OVHcloud: One year after his return, Octave Klaba deems the group 'ready to accelerate'
In a letter to shareholders, employees and customers published on October 20, 2026, Octave Klaba, founder and chief executive officer, took stock of his first year in command since October 2025 and affirmed that the group was 'ready to accelerate'. He recalls the three objectives set upon his arrival: meeting performance commitments, generating growth in Cloud and Artificial Intelligence, and creating sustainable value for customers, employees and shareholders.
Regionalized Public Cloud, sovereign offering and AI agents on the agenda
The 'Step Ahead' strategic plan rests, according to the letter, on three principles: 'executing today while preparing tomorrow', collaborating with customers and partners to anticipate their needs, and deploying investment cycles that are 'short, progressive and disciplined'. The executive highlights the mastery of the industrial value chain, from the construction of data centers to the design of servers. The group states that it owns the vast majority of its data centers, of which a significant portion of electrical capacity remains available, and has two server production sites.
On the software front, more than 80 Public Cloud products have been developed over five years; work now focuses on their integration and on the regionalization of the offering, in order to capture demand in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. A third offering, 'SNC Cloud Platform', obtained SecNumCloud qualification, and the group has begun delivering 'On-Prem Cloud Platform' in its customers' data centers. The increase in prices for next-generation Bare Metal servers allows, according to the text, to generate additional cash flow that offsets the increase in RAM and disk costs.
In Artificial Intelligence, the group is developing 'OVHai Workspace', a platform designed to enable companies to create and orchestrate AI agents. For the first time, some new products will be designed not for humans, but for AI agents. The letter specifies that part of future growth will rely on these services and that the corresponding investments are being made 'in a measured and progressive manner'.
Self-financing targeted, with leverage below 3 times EBITDA
On the organizational front, the restructuring of teams conducted during the 2026 fiscal year should produce its full effect in 2027. Customer support will be reworked, better segmented and assisted by Artificial Intelligence, and the value proposition of each brand (Kimsufi, SoYouStart, Gladia, OVH, OVHcloud and OVHai) will be clarified. Each new initiative brings together marketing, finance and technology, with the goal of reaching 1 million euros in monthly revenue as quickly as possible.
Octave Klaba emphasizes the return to positive free cash flow and indicates that the return on capital employed is improving over the last three fiscal years. The group intends to pursue the same investment cycle logic in order to finance the next cycle without an increase in equity, while maintaining debt leverage below 3 times EBITDA.
Cash generation capacity is intended for three purposes: investment in profitable growth, debt reduction and shareholder remuneration. The executive indicates his desire for choices regarding the allocation of this capacity to be the subject of regular discussions within the board of directors.
