\n<\/p>\n
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is far less vocal about his worldviews than Palantir\u2019s Alex Karp. And yet, France is taking steps to reduce its reliance on Windows<\/a>, while its domestic intelligence agency recently renewed its contract<\/a> with the increasingly controversial data analytics company.<\/p>\n This paradox is representative of Europe\u2019s messy breakup with U.S. tech. After painful realizations that it comes with strings attached, governments across the region are looking to rely less on American providers<\/a>. But the steps taken so far have been uneven and often reactive.<\/p>\n One change Europe is reacting to dates back to the first Trump presidency. Enacted in 2018, the CLOUD Act<\/a> forces U.S.-based tech companies to comply with law enforcement requests for data even if the information is stored abroad. This means that even servers located on European soil are no longer enough reassurance when critical data is concerned.<\/p>\n Of all the information that governments sit on, health data is arguably among the most sensitive. Still, the CLOUD Act\u2019s extraterritorial reach didn\u2019t stop the U.K. from striking deals<\/a> with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Palantir around data from its National Health Service (NHS) during the pandemic. But if critics have their way, it may end up following France\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n One year ago, the French government announced<\/a> that its Health Data Hub would be leaving Microsoft Azure in favor of a \u201csovereign cloud.\u201d<\/a> This contract has now been awarded to Scaleway<\/a>, a French cloud provider with a rapidly expanding network of data centers across Europe.<\/p>\n A subsidiary of French group iliad, Scaleway was also one of four providers that won a \u20ac180 million sovereign cloud tender<\/a> from the European Commission (approximately $211 million). AWS European Sovereign Cloud, which Amazon launched to address Europe\u2019s concerns<\/a>, is not on the list. However, some worry that the U.S. may still have a backdoor<\/a> due to one winner using S3NS<\/a>, a \u201ctrusted cloud\u201d joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud.<\/p>\n It wouldn\u2019t be the first time that solutions championed as alternatives to Big Tech face issues caused by their underlying dependencies. Qwant, for instance, was once recommended as the default search engine for public servants<\/a> in France while relying on Microsoft\u2019s Bing \u2014 a partnership<\/a> that went sour when the French company accused the U.S. giant of abusing its position<\/a>. The relevant watchdog declined<\/a> to take action, but Qwant had already made its own move.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> Joining forces with German non-profit Ecosia, Qwant launched Staan<\/a>, a Europe-based and privacy-focused search index that could help search engines like theirs reduce their dependency on Google and Bing. But both partners still lag far behind their U.S. rivals in notoriety and reach \u2014 even the slightly more popular Ecosia has only about 20 million users, not billions.<\/p>\n Capturing market share is arguably the main issue facing companies challenging U.S. giants \u2014 but public contracts could give them a leg up. For instance, the European Commission\u2019s tender will also benefit French cloud providers CleverCloud and OVHCloud, as well as STACKIT, which Lidl\u2019s parent company Schwarz Group created for its own needs but now commercializes<\/a>.<\/p>\n The perspective of winning large contracts with European institutions could encourage other players to follow the footsteps of Germany\u2019s retail heavyweight, or at least, that\u2019s the hope. According to its promoters, \u201can additional goal of the tender was to encourage the market to offer sovereign digital solutions that comply with EU laws and values.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the Commission\u2019s choice to avoid overreliance on a single provider could be a double-edged sword. On one end, diversification could provide more resilience and soothe dependence concerns. On the other hand, it won\u2019t be the best shortcut to fostering Europe\u2019s next trillion-dollar company.<\/p>\n To cynics and pragmatists, sovereign tech may look business-motivated \u2014 a way to ensure that euros stay home. But Europe\u2019s conscious uncoupling from U.S. tech hasn\u2019t always translated into contracts for its startups. For instance, France is ditching Windows for the open source operating system Linux<\/a>. Institutions in Austria<\/a>, Denmark<\/a>, Italy<\/a>, and Germany<\/a> are similarly looking to replace Microsoft\u2019s suite of products with open source alternatives, such as LibreOffice.<\/p>\n This switch sometimes goes alongside a \u201cbuild, don\u2019t buy\u201d philosophy that has raised criticism. France\u2019s Court of Auditors has questioned spending<\/a> on in-house tools such as Visio, a purported replacement for Zoom and Microsoft Teams<\/a>. Financial newspaper Les \u00c9chos also reported on backlash voiced across the tech ecosystem<\/a>, including this rhetorical question: \u201cIf the government doesn\u2019t lead by example, how can you expect large private companies to follow?\u201d<\/p>\n As a matter of fact, large private companies haven\u2019t followed much. German airline Lufthansa chose Elon Musk-backed Starlink<\/a> for its wifi service. So did Air France<\/a>, now also a private airline but still partly controlled by the French and Dutch states \u2014 and there\u2019s a chance that France\u2019s state-owned railway operator SNCF may do the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n Whether large companies choose alternatives over U.S. providers depends in large part on having technologically compelling European options. In a spat with Poland<\/a>, Musk stated<\/a> that \u201cthere is no substitute for Starlink\u201d \u2014 but European governments intend to prove him wrong<\/a>. Public sentiment could also play a role, and might not stop at many European individuals and officials leaving X<\/a>.<\/p>\n After President Trump threatened to take control of Greenland, apps for boycotting American products surged to the top of the Danish App Store<\/a> \u2014 a sign that demand to cut back on U.S. tech is getting broader. Pressure on European governments to reconsider their contracts<\/a> is also mounting, and Palantir\u2019s latest mini-manifesto<\/a> is unlikely to help its cause in the EU and the U.K.<\/a><\/p>\n Tech billionaires publicly defending views that many Europeans don\u2019t share is also a sign that the divorce is two-sided. When Meta chose to delay the EU launch of Threads<\/a> over concerns with European law, it was also a reminder that the region is only a secondary market for tech giants, and that they can afford to ignore it.<\/p>\n Conversely, this creates a market opportunity for solutions built for Europe, its many languages, and cultural nuances. This alone should naturally foster demand in their home markets, with an extra boost if supporters of the EuroStack initiative<\/a> manage to make it mandatory for Europe\u2019s public sector to buy local<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Europe may want to buy European, but there\u2019s also hope that \u201csovereign tech\u201d will sell abroad. Mistral AI<\/a> reportedly saw its revenues surge<\/a> for being an alternative to OpenAI. Meanwhile, the Canadian and German governments are supporting Cohere\u2019s merger with Aleph Alpha<\/a> to create a \u201ctransatlantic AI powerhouse\u201d serving businesses and governments around the world. In 2026, not being American \u2014 nor Chinese or Russian \u2014 is increasingly a selling point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nPrivate buyers may decide the outcome<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Not being American is becoming an advantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n