Summary
- Sopra Steria raised its 2026 organic revenue-growth target to 2.0%–2.5%, up from 1.0%–2.0%.
- Growth was supported by demand across AI, cybersecurity, sovereign technology, defence, security, space, aerospace, and European public-sector markets.
- The results show how cyber spending is being tied to regulated-sector resilience, defence modernisation, secure data systems, and technology sovereignty.
Sopra Steria has raised its full-year revenue-growth target, adding to evidence that European spending on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, defence technology, and sovereign infrastructure remains resilient.
The French IT services group now expects organic revenue growth of 2.0% to 2.5% for 2026, compared with its previous forecast of 1.0% to 2.0%. First-half revenue reached €2.96 billion, while operating profit on business activity rose to €284.5 million. Reuters reported that second-quarter underlying growth accelerated to 5.3%, following 4.4% in the first quarter.
The strongest areas of growth sit close to Europe’s strategic technology priorities. Sopra Steria works with public-sector bodies, banks, defence contractors, aerospace groups, industrial companies, and organisations with sovereignty requirements. Its defence, security, and space revenue reportedly rose 10% in the first half, while aeronautics revenue grew 12%.
The cyber element is commercially material because security spending in Europe is increasingly attached to programmes that are difficult to defer. Regulated-sector resilience, government digital services, secure data platforms, defence modernisation, and sovereign cloud work all require architecture, integration, identity, data protection, and assurance controls, not only standalone security tools.
France accounted for 44% of group revenue and delivered organic growth of 7.1%, with public services, defence, and strategic infrastructure among the areas of support. Germany and Belgium also improved during the second quarter, reinforcing the view that European technology demand is strongest where security overlaps with state capability, industrial policy, and critical-service continuity.
Cybersecurity procurement is also changing shape. Buyers are funding operating models, technical architectures, data environments, and resilience programmes that can stand up to regulatory scrutiny. DORA, NIS2, national resilience initiatives, and public-sector digital transformation are pushing organisations to evidence how critical systems are protected, how incidents are managed, and how suppliers are governed.
Sovereign technology remains part of that equation. European organisations continue to assess dependency on non-European cloud, software, and infrastructure providers, particularly where data, legal control, availability, and operational continuity are central to risk decisions. Sovereignty does not remove cyber exposure, but it changes the criteria by which suppliers, architectures, and contracts are judged.
Sopra Steria’s upgraded outlook also points to a governance issue for buyers. As more cyber, cloud, AI, and infrastructure transformation work is concentrated with large strategic providers, organisations need clear visibility over dependency, exit options, architecture decisions, and assurance evidence. Strong demand for European cyber services is a capability signal, but it also increases the importance of supplier oversight and retained internal control.
