Hopsworks AB announced on June 18, 2026 that Zalando has adopted Hopsworks as its AI platform for delivering personalized customer experiences at scale. The Stockholm-based company emphasized that this partnership demonstrates Europe's capability to build and operate world-class AI infrastructure, contrasting with the perception that only US companies excel in high-end software platforms for AI systems.

Zalando, which reported 17.6 billion euros in GMV in 2025 to become Europe's largest online retailer, faces significant technical demands including the need to handle millions of operations per second during peak periods such as Cyber Week, while maintaining high performance, zero downtime, security, and governance standards. Hopsworks' platform is built to meet these requirements.

Jim Dowling, CEO of Hopsworks, stated: "There is a perception that Europe does not have companies that compete in these high-end software platforms that support AI systems. However, today we are pleased to report that Zalando are powering their highest performance, most demanding AI services with a European-owned and operated AI platform, Hopsworks."

Hopsworks positions itself as Europe's leading unified platform for building batch, real-time, and LLM-powered AI systems. The company, which has assembled a team with over 10 PhDs, emphasizes its focus on building rather than talking during industry conference season. Dowling noted that interactive AI systems must respond at human latencies to be considered truly intelligent, otherwise they will simply be perceived as slow.