Opinion I am an eighth-generation American, and let me let you know, I would not belief my knowledge, secrets and techniques, or companies to a US firm today for love or cash. Underneath our present authorities, we’re merely not reliable.
Within the Trump‑redux period of 2026, European enterprises are lastly taking knowledge severely, and meaning packing up from Redmond-by-Seattle and shifting their most delicate workloads dwelling. This is not simply compliance theater; it is a straight‑up nationwide financial safety play.
Open supply’s new mission: Rebuild a continent’s tech stack
Europe’s digital sovereignty paranoia, lengthy waved off as regulatory chatter, is now feeding instantly into procurement choices. Gartner advised The Reg final 12 months that IT spending in Europe is about to develop by 11 % in 2026, hitting $1.4 trillion, with an enormous chunk rolling into “sovereign cloud” choices and on‑prem/edge architectures.
The kicker? Totally 61 % of European CIOs and tech leaders say they wish to improve their use of native cloud suppliers. Greater than half say geopolitics will stop them from leaning additional on US‑based mostly hyperscalers.
The American hypercloud distributors have figured this out. AWS not too long ago made its European Sovereign Cloud obtainable. This AWS cloud, Amazon claims, is “totally situated inside the EU, and bodily and logically separate from different AWS Areas.” On prime of that, EU residents will “independently function it” and “be backed by sturdy technical controls, sovereign assurances, and authorized protections designed to satisfy the wants of European governments and enterprises for delicate knowledge.”
Many EU-based firms aren’t happy with this Euro-washing of American hypercloud companies. The Cloud Infrastructure Service Suppliers in Europe (CISPE) commerce affiliation accuses the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework of being set as much as favor the incumbent (American) hypercloud suppliers.
They are not flawed.
You do not want a DEA warrant or a Justice Division subpoena to see the pattern: Europe’s 90‑plus‑% dependency on US cloud infrastructure, as former European Fee advisor Cristina Caffarra put it, is a single‑shock‑occasion safety nightmare ready to rupture the EU’s digital stability.
Severely. What’s going to you do if Washington decides to unplug you? Say Trump will get up on the flawed facet of the mattress and decides to invade Greenland. There goes NATO, and in all of the saber-rattling main as much as the tenth Mountain Division being shipped to Nuuk, he orders American firms to chop their companies to all EU nations and the UK.
With the best way issues are going, they are not going to say no. I imply, CEOs Tim Cook dinner of Apple, Eric Yuan of Zoom, Lisa Su of AMD, and – concentrate – Amazon’s Andy Jassy all went obediently to look at a feature-length White Home screening of Melania, the universally-loathed, 104‑minute Amazon‑produced documentary about First Woman Melania Trump.
Certain, that is a foolish instance, however for American firms to do enterprise immediately, they’re kowtowing to Trump. Or, take a much more severe instance, when Minnesota firm CEOs referred to as for “de-escalation” within the state, there was not one phrase about ICE or the federal government’s function within the bloodshed. It was the company equal of the mealy-mouthed “ideas and prayers” American right-wingers at all times say after a US faculty taking pictures.
Some firms have already discovered which approach the wind is blowing. Airbus, the European aerospace titan, has put out a €50 million, decade‑lengthy tender emigrate its mission‑vital functions to a “sovereign European cloud.” Airbus needs its entire stack – knowledge at relaxation, knowledge in transit, logging, IAM, and safety‑monitoring infrastructure – all rooted in EU legislation and overseen by EU operators. As Catherine Jestin, Airbus’s government vice chairman of digital, advised The Register: “We wish to guarantee this info stays underneath European management.”
Who can blame them? Due to the American CLOUD Act and associated US surveillance statutes, US‑headquartered suppliers should hand over European knowledge no matter the place the bytes sit. Exhibit A is that Microsoft has already conceded that it can’t assure knowledge independence from US legislation enforcement. Airbus is betting that “knowledge residency on paper” from AWS‑styled “EU sections” isn’t sufficient. Actual sovereignty calls for EU‑owned and run operations with full contractual and authorized firewalls. Certain, your knowledge could dwell in Frankfurt, however your destiny nonetheless rests in Seattle, Redmond, or Mountain View if an American firm owns your cloud supplier.
Moreover, do you actually need some Trump apparatchik getting their arms in your knowledge? I imply, it is a authorities the place Madhu Gottumukkala, the appearing director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, uploaded delicate knowledge into ChatGPT!
In response, Brussels is pushing an open supply‑led exit from hyperscaler lock‑in. Ministries are standardizing on Nextcloud‑type collaboration stacks as a substitute of Microsoft 365 to fund Euro‑native clouds through the European Cloud Alliance. Some nations, like France, are already shoving Zoom, Groups, and different US videoconferencing platforms out the door in favor of a neighborhood service.
Should you’re operating an EU‑based mostly agency in 2026, the takeaway is not that AWS‑in‑Frankfurt is evil; it is that for sure workloads, particularly nationwide safety, industrial IP, or excessive‑profile shopper knowledge franchises, EU‑native cloud and companies are not a pleasant‑to‑have however a enterprise continuity plan requirement.
It is time to get severe about digital sovereignty. The clock is ticking, and there is not any telling when Trump will go off. ®
