Until a few years ago, the term ‘technological sovereignty’ was the domain of academic debates and niche reports prepared by EU officials in Brussels. For a CEO or CTO in Europe, US Big Tech was like gravity – fixed, inevitable and, despite some privacy controversies, guaranteeing stability. However, recent months have brought a brutal verification of this optimism. Events on the Washington-Brussels line, including Donald Trump ‘s staggering territorial ambitions for Greenland, have catalysed changes that could redraw the map of digital business in Europe forever.
The end of digital optimism
Why has the ‘Greenland Effect’ become a symbol of change in IT? While the US administration’s attempted annexation of the island may have seemed like a media anecdote, for European business leaders it was a clear warning: we live in a time where existing rules of the game and alliances can be challenged in a single tweet or unpredictable political decision.
Risk is no longer theoretical. Today, European business has to ask itself a question that until recently sounded like a sci-fi movie script: what will happen to my company if access to SaaS services, cloud computing or data centres from the US is blocked as a result of a diplomatic dispute? The answer to this question today is building a new strategy of ‘limited trust technology’.
The statistics of addiction: Landscape after the battle
To understand the scale of the challenge, it is important to look at hard data. In 2024, European customers will have spent nearly $25 billion on cloud infrastructure provided by the five largest US players. According to IDC data, US companies control as much as 83% of the European cloud market.
This contrast is striking when we recall Europe two decades ago. In the age of mobile telephony, it was our continent that dictated the terms thanks to the power of Nokia and Ericsson. Today, in the age of the data economy, Europe finds itself in the deep shadow of the United States and China. Attempts to build local search engines or social networks have failed, crushed by American scale, high-risk culture and almost unlimited access to capital.
EU business leaders point to three main inhibitors: excessive bureaucracy, market fragmentation into 27 national systems and a fear of risk that paralyses innovation at an early stage.
Fortress Europe: A new defence strategy
Faced with rising tensions, Germany and France – the two largest economies in the Union – have stopped waiting for a pan-European consensus and have gone on the offensive. The strategy is clear: if we cannot (yet) create our own Google, we must secure the foundations.
The German Federal Ministry of Digitalisation has just implemented openDesk, an open source alternative to Microsoft tools. This signals that open source software is ceasing to be the domain of enthusiasts and is becoming an ‘insurance policy’ for state institutions and strategic enterprises. France, on the other hand, is promoting Visio, a local videoconferencing solution, eliminating dependence on US platforms in public administration.
President Emmanuel Macron is going one step further, offering cheap nuclear power to companies building data centres in the region and actively supporting Mistral AI – the European answer to software from OpenAI. This is no longer just politics; it is the construction of a new business ecosystem in which the ‘origin of technology’ becomes a key parameter of choice.
Giants’ response: Camouflage or adaptation?
US tech giants are not going to stand idly by and watch their loss of influence in a region that generates hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for them. Big Tech’s adaptive strategy is fascinating: they are building ‘European clouds’ to look and act like local companies.
Microsoft is stepping up its collaboration with Delos Cloud (a subsidiary of SAP) and Google is setting up independent entities based in Germany and staffed exclusively in the EU. The aim is clear: to circumvent concerns about the US Cloud Act, which in theory allows US services to see data stored abroad.
However, for the informed CTO, this is still a half-hearted solution. The question of whether the US giant’s ‘local company’ will realistically resist pressure from its own government in a crisis situation remains open.
Change management: People, not just bits
As Frank Karlitschek, CEO of NextCloud, points out, technology is only half the battle. The biggest challenge for the European business is change management. Migrating from comfortable, familiar US systems that have been around for years to European or open-source alternatives is an operationally painful process.
It requires excellent communication and preparation of employees to change their habits. However, in the new geopolitical paradigm, this effort is seen not as a cost, but as an investment in Business Continuity.
Technology as a diplomatic currency
“The Greenland effect” has made Europe realise that in the 21st century sovereignty does not end at land borders – it begins at servers. Europe does not seek complete isolation from American technology, because that would be economic suicide. It does, however, seek to create a ‘fuse’.
