Trump says Europe bids for digital sovereignty amid threat from Russia

A European minister told CNBC that digital sovereignty is a “matter of national survival” as the continent scrambles to undo America’s dominance of digital services in its infrastructure amid geopolitical tensions.

The region’s dependence on U.S. technology and military protection has become clearer as relations with President Donald Trump’s administration deteriorate amid challenges from China and Russia.

After returning to the White House last year, President Trump alarmed Europe by imposing tariffs. This year, he provoked further alarm when he defiantly refused to rule out military action to take Denmark’s semi-autonomous territory of Greenland, and ultimately ruled out military action.

US cloud providers dominate the European market with an 85% share, according to data from Synergy Research Group.

Critics have warned that reliance on the non-sovereign provider is a risk amid reports of an increase in Russian cyberattacks and rising geopolitical tensions with the US government. Under the 2018 Cloud Act, the country’s law enforcement agencies can request user data from U.S. companies, regardless of where the data is stored.

Estonia told CNBC it was accelerating its “open source first” principle due to “growing security threats in Europe’s east.” Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has heightened fears that the Baltic states, including Estonia, will be targeted.

“Digital sovereignty has now become not just an IT policy, but a matter of national survival,” said Lisa Pacosta, the country’s Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs.

Other European governments also told CNBC they are exploring homegrown and open source alternatives to U.S. technology platforms and increasing their budgets for digital sovereignty.

A spokesperson for the federal ministry responsible for digital transformation and government modernization told CNBC that “strengthening digital sovereignty is one of the central goals” of the current German government, pointing to “geopolitical developments” in recent years.

“The current situation is characterized by high instability and ongoing conflict,” they said, adding that “strained” relations between the United States and Europe have called multilateral structures into question.

However, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google control more than 70% of the region’s cloud market, and U.S. companies control at least 59% of the enterprise software market.

France announced in January that it would introduce Visio, a government-developed video conferencing tool that would be available on all national services by 2027, replacing U.S. tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

In the same month, the EU said it faced “a serious problem of dependence on non-EU countries in the digital sector…which could create vulnerabilities, including in key areas.”

The Belgian federal government is “reevaluating its dependencies in the digital realm, starting with the most important areas,” a spokesperson for the digitalization minister told CNBC.

“In this context, Belgium’s cloud computing strategy for the federal government is being considered, in parallel with the analysis of the situation in federal data centres,” they added. “This approach aims to address issues related to data sovereignty, resiliency and security, including the storage of the most sensitive data.”

Many European countries say they have been hit by Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks in recent years. The EU said in a statement in July that it had observed “a deliberate and systematic pattern of malicious acts allegedly by Russia.”

“While we value technology partnerships, relying solely on closed, proprietary ‘black box’ solutions creates strategic vulnerabilities,” said Estonia’s Pacosta.

“Open source allows us to maintain full control over our code and keep Estonia’s digital nation running locally, even if global connectivity is severed or external vendor policies change,” she added.

Pacosta added that the country is increasing investment in strengthening its sovereign digital capabilities in the 2026 national budget.

Open source alternatives to U.S. technology systems are increasingly being considered by European governments.

Denmark has announced that it will begin piloting an open source alternative to Microsoft Office for some government employees in June. “Too much public digital infrastructure is currently tied to too few foreign suppliers,” Digital Minister Caroline Stage-Olsen said in a translated post on LinkedIn at the time. “This makes us vulnerable.”

However, a spokesperson for the ministry downplayed the move in an interview with CNBC. They described the pilot as “minor” and added that it was aimed at “improving our understanding of alternative technologies” and that no decision had been made to move away from Microsoft or Windows.

In November, all 27 member states of the European Union signed a declaration expressing their shared ambition to “strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty” and reduce “strategic dependence.”

Spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure-as-a-service platforms in European countries will more than triple to $23 billion in 2027 compared to 2025 levels, a recent report from research firm Gartner predicts. This is a much larger increase than in North America or China.

“As geopolitical tensions increase, organizations outside the U.S. and China are increasing their investments in sovereign cloud IaaS to gain digital and technological independence,” said Rene Buest, senior director analyst at Gartner.

“Governments will continue to be the primary buyers of digital sovereignty needs, followed by regulated industries and critical infrastructure organizations such as energy, utilities and telecommunications,” he added.

American technology platforms won’t disappear from Europe anytime soon. In comments to CNBC, many European countries emphasized that they are keen to continue collaborating with US tech companies on certain aspects of digital infrastructure.

“We recognize and value the long-standing role that US technology companies have played in Europe’s digital transformation,” Estonia’s Pacosta said. “American hyperscalers are important and reliable partners in the European cloud ecosystem.”

Even if Europe wanted to completely remove American digital systems from its technology infrastructure, it is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“To become a top player, companies must continue to make significant investments in research, service development, technology infrastructure, customer support and channel partners,” John Dinsdale, principal analyst at Synergy Research Group, told CNBC.

“It will be very difficult for European cloud providers to meaningfully reverse market share trends,” he added.