With President Donald Trump extra unpredictable than ever and transatlantic ties reaching new lows, calls are rising louder for Europe to declare independence from US tech.
From Microsoft to Meta, Apple to Uber, cloud computing to AI, a lot of the day-to-day expertise utilized by Europeans is American.
The dangers that brings have been hotly debated earlier than Trump returned to energy, however now Europe is getting critical — pushing to favour European corporations in public contracts and backing European variations of well-known US providers.
As Europe faces Trump’s tariffs, and threatens to tax US tech except the 2 sides clinch a deal averting all-out commerce battle, there’s a rising sense of urgency.
Tech sovereignty has been entrance and centre for weeks: the European Union unveiled its technique to compete within the international synthetic intelligence race and is speaking about its personal fee system to rival Mastercard.
“We now have to construct up our personal capacities in terms of applied sciences,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen has mentioned, figuring out three vital sectors: AI, quantum and semiconductors.
A key concern is that if ties worsen, Washington might doubtlessly weaponise US digital dominance towards Europe — with Trump’s administration already taking purpose on the bloc’s tech guidelines.
That’s giving contemporary impetus to calls for by business, consultants and EU lawmakers for Europe to bolster its infrastructure and reduce reliance on a small group of US corporations.
“Relying solely on non-European applied sciences exposes us to strategic and financial dangers,” mentioned EU lawmaker Stephanie Yon-Courtin, who focuses on digital points, pointing to US limits on semiconductor exports as one instance.
‘Purchase European’ push
The info paints a stark image.
Round two-thirds of Europe’s cloud market is within the palms of US titans Amazon, Microsoft and Google, whereas the share of European cloud suppliers has been in regular decline, falling to 13 p.c in 2022.
Twenty-three p.c of the bloc’s whole high-tech imports in 2023 got here from america, second solely to China — in every part from aerospace and pharmaceutical tech to smartphones and chips.
Though the concept of a European social media platform to rival Fb or X is given brief shrift, officers consider that within the essential AI discipline, the race is way from over.
To spice up European AI corporations, the EU has known as for a “European desire for vital sectors and applied sciences” in public procurement.
“Incentives to purchase European are necessary,” Benjamin Revcolevschi, chief government of French cloud supplier OVHcloud, advised AFP, welcoming the broader made-in-Europe push.
Alison James, European authorities relations lead at electronics business affiliation IPC, summed it up: “We have to have what we’d like for our key industries and our vital industries to have the ability to make our stuff.”
There are requires higher independence from US monetary expertise as properly, with European Central Financial institution chief Christine Lagarde advocating a “European supply” to rival American (Mastercard, Visa and Paypal) and Chinese language fee methods (Alipay).
Heeding the decision, EU capitals have mentioned making a “really European fee system”.
Business insiders are additionally conscious constructing tech sovereignty requires huge funding, at a second when the EU is pouring cash into defence.
In an initiative known as EuroStack, digital coverage consultants mentioned making a European tech ecosystem with layers together with AI would price 300 billion euros ($340 billion) by 2035.
US commerce group Chamber of Progress places it a lot greater, at over 5 trillion euros.
Completely different values
US Vice President JD Vance has taken purpose at tech regulation in denouncing Europe’s social and financial mannequin — accusing it of stifling innovation and unfairly hampering US corporations, a lot of whom have aligned with Trump’s administration.
However for a lot of, the bloc’s values-based guidelines are one more reason to struggle for tech independence.
After repeated abuses by US Large Tech, the EU created main legal guidelines regulating the net world together with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Providers Act (DSA).
A lot to the chagrin of US digital giants, the EU in 2018 launched strict guidelines to guard European customers’ information, and final 12 months ushered on the earth’s broadest safeguards on AI.
In observe, supporters say the DMA encourages customers to find European platforms — for example giving customers a alternative of browser, relatively than the default from Apple or Google.
Bruce Lawson of Norwegian net browser Vivaldi mentioned there was “a major and gratifying enhance in downloads in Europe”, thanks largely to the DMA.
Lawson insists it isn’t about being anti-American.
“It is about weaning ourselves off the dependency on infrastructure which have very totally different values about information safety,” Lawson mentioned.
Pointing at guidelines in Europe that “do not essentially exist in america”, he mentioned customers merely “want to have their information processed by a European firm”.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
