2 weeks Ago By Niall Kitson
22 April 2025 Semiconductor tariffs? Tech trade wars? In the long run those of us in Europe might just breathe a small sigh of relief, but before that happy day we have a lot of work to do if we want to correct the strategic error of letting our technology sector wither on the vine. While concern is, finally, being expressed in Ireland that the country is too reliant on US multinationals (albeit competing with the national obsession with not rocking the boat), in recent months the EU has been actively working to reduce its dependence on foreign technology – or is at least making the right noises about it. Not before time.
While not directly related to the Trump tariff frenzy, the timing of the American attempt to use its market muscle to cow corporations and countries alike into submission does at least mean everyone can now see that our choices of technology have left us vulnerable. Sadly, looking ahead, the signs are not good. Not only are we increasingly aware of the dark side of the tech industry, but, since just before the 2024 US presidential election we have seen company after company line-up to kiss the ring, presumably hoping to carve out tariff exemptions and curry favour with the administration.
Meanwhile, any attempt by Europe to assert its ‘technological sovereignty’ will likely be hamstrung by our near total reliance on the US. Efforts to create EU-based search engines , EU-centric editions of the Linux operating system, EU-based messaging apps and, of course, EU-based artificial intelligence (AI) should not be dismissed out of hand, but it is hard to escape the feeling that, while in the 1980s we had a technology sector that could go toe-to-toe with the US, today we have ceded control of much foundational technology to the US. Of course, for decades, American commentators and policymakers have derided European countries for our regulated labour markets, strong social safety nets, social protections, and right to control the data we produce.
Little wonder the US led in tech, they said, as European practices ‘created inefficiency’, ‘stifled innovation’, and ‘hampered growth’. The European model was characterised as inflexible and outdated, contrasting unfavorably with America’s dynamic ‘hire and fire’ approach that supposedly fostered entrepreneurship and prosperity. Such propaganda rings hollow when seen through the prism of current economic realities: even before the tariff chaos, the American economy displayed signs of dysfunction and inequality.
Gig workers without benefits, crushing medical debt, housing crises in major cities, and stagnant wages despite soaring corporate profits paint a picture not of economic superiority, but of systemic rot. Europe does lag in computing and information technology, though. Badly, in fact.
But the cause is more a lack of ambition than failure to squeeze every drop of juice from workers. Truthfully, we dropped the ball on tech long before the Internet revolution. Accounting-led changes in how we obtain computational power will make things worse, too.
While there is no technical barrier to a European company taking on the likes of cloud platforms Microsoft Azure or Amazon’s AWS, the reality is that European businesses are tied to American technology delivered through American platforms. Politicians are finally sounding the alarm. “We have to build up our own capacities when it comes to [AI, quantum and semiconductor] technologies,” EU tech sovereignty chief Henna Virkkunen told the Agence France-Press newswire.
The reality is that European consumers and businesses are far from ‘sovereign’. Indeed, a study published by Synergy Research Group shows European cloud service providers’ market share declined from 27% to 13% between 2017 and 2022, with growth lagging “well behind the overall cloud market”. “These three leading global cloud providers now account for 72% of the regional market and their share continues to steadily rise.
Among the European cloud providers, SAP and Deutsche Telekom are the leaders, each accounting for 2% of the European market. They are followed by OVHcloud, Telecom Italia, Orange and a long list of national and regional players. The balance of the European market is accounted for by smaller US and Asian cloud providers, who are steadily losing share,” it said.
If today’s basic computing platforms – which is all ‘the cloud’ really is – are foreign-owned, then we really are reliant on the goodwill of others. Technological independence, not only from countries, but from platforms and technologies over which we have no control, now there’s an idea..
. Read More: Blog Blogs Jason Walsh semiconductors.
