The formation of the Trusted Tech Alliance, jointly announced by Microsoft, Ericsson and thirteen other industry leaders, is a clear signal: business is no longer a passive observer of the political fragmentation of the world. Faced with the escalating rhetoric of the new US administration and Europe’s push for ‘digital sovereignty’, corporations are trying to seize the narrative before politicians do it for them.
Business versus geopolitics
The initiative is born at a critical moment. Instead of waiting for inconsistent local regulations, companies such as Google, SAP and Amazon Web Services (AWS) want to impose their own supranational definition of ‘trust’. The foundation of the alliance consists of five pillars, intended to act as a universal security certificate:
- Secure by design.
- Ethical conduct and corporate governance.
- Rigorous standards in supply chains.
- Adherence to global safety standards.
- Support for an open digital environment.
For Microsoft’s Brad Smith and Ericsson’s Börje Ekholm, the goal is clear: to save the scalability of services. Ekholm points out that total technological sovereignty in today’s economy is an illusion and a straight path to trade barriers that will hit innovation.
Escape to the front?
Analysts point out, however, that under the guise of caring about standards is a classic defence mechanism. The Trusted Tech Alliance can be read as an attempt to get ahead of hard regulation (like the European AI Act) through soft law. Companies set rules that are convenient for themselves before governments impose costly ones.
Moreover, the criticism of ‘digital sovereignty’ coming from Silicon Valley is sometimes perceived as hypocritical. For many countries, data localisation is the only defence mechanism against digital colonialism. There is also a risk that the alliance’s exorbitant standards – requiring costly independent audits – will become a protective moat for giants, effectively cutting off smaller startups and competitors from emerging markets.
