BRUSSELS – Growing anxiety over excessive European reliance on non-domestic technology providers has spurred European Union leaders to launch an ambitious new initiative designed to build up homegrown alternatives to foreign Big Tech and critical hardware. On Wednesday, the 27-nation bloc announced its comprehensive “tech sovereignty” package, a set of policy measures crafted to nurture local European competitors for the U.S.-dominated AI and cloud computing sectors and reduce heavy dependence on Asian microchip manufacturing.
The push for greater technological autonomy has gained urgent momentum in recent years, as EU policymakers have raised alarms that foreign control of critical digital and hardware infrastructure could be weaponized against European interests. These concerns were solidified by a high-profile incident several years ago, when the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor, prompting U.S. tech giant Microsoft to terminate the prosecutor’s corporate email account. The episode fueled widespread fears across the bloc that foreign technology services could include hidden “kill switches” that would allow external powers to disrupt critical European operations at will.
“Europe wants to be in the position to make its own choices, avoiding risky dependencies on single dominant suppliers, one company or one third country,” Henna Virkkunen, European Commission Executive Vice-President responsible for overseeing the bloc’s tech sovereignty agenda, told reporters in Brussels. “Because we live in a world where geopolitics and technology go hand in hand. Those who champion technological innovation will shape the future, and we must ensure that Europe plays a leading role in this.”
A core pillar of the new package is an expansion of the EU’s landmark 2023 Chips Act, which was originally introduced to boost local semiconductor output. The updated rules will further streamline burdensome regulatory red tape for new semiconductor fabrication plants, while working to build a fully integrated, self-sustaining European chipmaking ecosystem. These measures were prompted in part by a 2023 power struggle at Nexperia, a Chinese-owned chipmaker headquartered in the Netherlands, which laid bare how vulnerable Europe’s fragmented semiconductor supply chain is to global geopolitical shifts, given most of the world’s advanced chip manufacturing is concentrated in East Asia.
The second major component of the initiative focuses on shoring up Europe’s domestic cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence development capacity. The bloc has laid out a formal target to triple its total regional data center capacity over the next five to seven years, a move intended to keep pace with the explosive global AI boom that has driven a sharp, sustained surge in demand for high-capacity cloud computing services.
The policy package was drafted and released by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. It now moves to the bloc’s two other governing institutions — the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union — for debate and final approval before any measures can go into effect.