From a Whisper to a Scream: Europe Frets About Overreliance on US Tech

From a Whisper to a Scream: Europe Frets About Overreliance on US Tech argues that concern over depending on US cybersecurity and tech firms has moved from a quiet murmur to a louder public discourse across Europe, with attention turning to Greenland and post‑territorial data issues.

The piece traces a long arc from the Microsoft case and the CLOUD Act to today’s worries about data sovereignty, noting that the CLOUD Act was designed to address those earlier concerns and that the debate has grown around a “post-territorial” framework for e‑evidence.

It highlights high‑profile moments, such as six of the Magnificent Seven US tech chiefs attending President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 and Nvidia’s August 2025 agreement to pay 15% of AI‑chip revenue to the US government for China export licenses, as signs of closer alignment with Washington in the eyes of European observers.

There are also explicit calls to diversify suppliers and to build European alternatives through initiatives like Gaia‑X, the Gaia‑X Project, the European Cloud & AI Development Act, and EuroHPC, alongside moves by states and companies to migrate to local or sovereign cloud options. The UK is portrayed as re‑examining its post‑Brexit stance, with discussions in Parliament around the Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill and a notable £240 million Palantir contract in December 2025 to bolster MoD capabilities.