Key points
- EU has unveiled its strategy to compete in global AI race
- Around two-thirds of Europe’s cloud market is in the hands of US titans
ISLAMABAD: As Europe faces Trump’s tariffs, and threatens to tax US tech unless the two sides clinch a deal averting all-out trade war.
AFP reported that tech sovereignty has been front and centre for weeks: the European Union unveiled its strategy to compete in the global artificial intelligence race and is talking about its own payment system to rival Mastercard.
“We have to build up our own capacities when it comes to technologies,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen has said, identifying three critical sectors: AI, quantum and semiconductors, according to AFP.
“Relying exclusively on non-European technologies exposes us to strategic and economic risks,” AFP cited EU lawmaker Stephanie Yon-Courtin as saying.
“Buy European” push
Around two-thirds of Europe’s cloud market is in the hands of US titans: Amazon, Microsoft and Google, while European cloud providers make up only two percent.
Twenty-three per cent of the bloc’s total high-tech imports in 2023 came from the United States, second only to China — in everything from aerospace and pharmaceutical tech to smartphones and chips.
Although the idea of a European social media platform to rival Facebook or X is given short shrift, officials believe that in the crucial AI field, the race is far from over, AFP added.
To boost European AI firms, the EU has called for a “European preference for critical sectors and technologies” in public procurement.
“Incentives to buy European are important,” Benjamin Revcolevschi, chief executive of French cloud provider OVHcloud, told AFP, welcoming the broader made-in-Europe push.
Heeding the call, EU capitals have discussed creating a “truly European payment system”.
Industry insiders are also aware building tech sovereignty requires massive investment, at a moment when the EU is pouring money into defence.
In an initiative called EuroStack, digital policy experts said creating a European tech ecosystem with layers including AI would cost 300 billion euros ($340 billion) by 2035, AFP reported.
US trade group Chamber of Progress puts it much higher, at over five trillion euros.
Different values
US Vice President JD Vance has taken aim at tech regulation in denouncing Europe’s social and economic model — accusing it of stifling innovation and unfairly hampering US firms, many of whom have aligned with Trump’s administration.
But for many, the bloc’s values-based rules are another reason to fight for tech independence.
CNN reported that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration’s decision on Friday to exempt electronic devices — like smartphones, iPhones and laptops — from tariffs was only a temporary reprieve but those products will face separate levies.
Similarly, ABC cited Lutnick as saying, “Electronics are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.”
