The growth of the Dutch digital economy has leveled off slightly in the first quarter of 2025. That is according to the latest edition of the Digital Economy Quarterly Monitor, compiled by Pb7 Research, Rabobank, Dutch Cloud Community and Dutch Data Center Association. The Digital Economy Index Netherlands (DEIN) dropped four points to 110. Geopolitical tensions, slowdown after the fall of the cabinet and uncertainty about international trade relations played a major role.
Cloud and AI continue to grow, but workforce growth lags
Business spending on public cloud increased by 12% to €2.5 billion. IaaS even grew by 19% to €833 million. AI is developing rapidly toward so-called “reasoning” and “agentic” applications. At the same time, the number of IT jobs fell slightly compared to Q4, despite year-on-year growth of 2%.
The digital sector experienced moderate growth of 1.5% in value added. The number of self-employed rose 28%, while the number of employees fell 0.9%, partly due to AI-driven reorganizations in the telecom and IT sectors.
Infrastructure develops but runs into limits
Data traffic through AMS-IX increased 7.7% to 8.8 exabytes. Peak traffic and fiber growth also increased. Still, colocation capacity growth is limited (+1.5%), due to network congestion, licensing problems and lack of political support. As a result, the Netherlands is losing ground as a digital gateway to Europe.
Policy delay, but investment in digital sovereignty
Although legislation around NIS2 and AI was delayed, an AI factory was announced in Groningen and the Netherlands invested over €60 million in digital innovation through EU programs. At the D9+ Summit in Amsterdam, EU countries discussed cooperation on AI, cloud and digital public services.
At the same time, political and societal attention to digital sovereignty is growing. Concerns about dependence on foreign cloud providers lead to Parliamentary initiatives, policy measures and investments in European alternatives. The recent motion to have at least 30% of government cloud services provided by European parties by 2029 underscores the strategic importance attached to control over data and infrastructure.
The quarterly monitor shows that the digital economy remains resilient but under pressure. Investment in infrastructure, innovation and talent is needed to remain internationally competitive.