President Donald Trump is no stranger to criticism, seemingly always in the firing line of many a critic. Data centre provider Artmotion has today joined the critics, claiming that Trump’s stance on data privacy could hit the US cloud industry for more than $10 billion by 2020.

The US cloud industry is already thought to stand on shaky ground, with many reports pointing to the fact that growth among US cloud providers is already slowing.

Despite IDC’s latest Worldwide Public Cloud Services Spending Guide suggesting that the US will generate more than 60% of total worldwide cloud revenues to 2020, it is thought that the States is looking to post the slowest growth rate of the eight regions in the analysis.

This forecast, however, does not take into account the impact that President Trump’s controversial record on data privacy could have on business confidence in the US as a data hosting location.

Taking into account the growing uncertainty in the US, Artmotion expects US cloud providers to experience further slowing of growth in the next three years – creating estimated losses of $10.1 billion for the industry between 2017 and 2020.

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Mateo Meier, CEO of Artmotion, said: “In a market that is still expected to grow significantly in the next few years, it is vital that US service providers continue to attract new customers in order to retain market share.

“Despite the US’s current dominance of the global cloud computing market, there is no certainty that the status quo will be maintained. Perhaps the key reason for US cloud providers to be fearful is that this isn’t the first time we’ve been here.

“Edward Snowden’s revelations about PRISM and the NSA’s mass surveillance techniques were hugely damaging to US cloud companies. It also encouraged many businesses to completely rethink their data strategies, rather than continuing to trust that US cloud providers would guarantee the levels of data security and privacy they need. The impact that President Trump could have needs to be understood in that context.”