Beyond Europe’s efforts to abandon US programs in favor of sovereign technology

This wouldn’t be the first time that solutions championed as alternatives to big tech companies have faced issues stemming from their underlying dependencies. For example, Qwant was once recommended as the default search engine for public employees in France while relying on Microsoft’s Bing — a partnership that soured when the French company accused the American giant of abusing its position. The relevant regulatory body refused to take any action, but Qwant has already taken its own step.

Joining forces with German non-profit Ecosia, Quant launched Stan Search Index, a European-based, privacy-focused search index that can help search engines like its own reduce their reliance on Google and Bing. But both partners still lag far behind their American rivals in terms of notoriety and reach – even the slightly more popular Ecosia has only about 20 million users, not billions.

Capturing market share is arguably the key issue facing companies challenging US giants – but public contracts could give them a boost. For example, the European Commission’s tender will also benefit from French cloud providers CleverCloud and OVHCloud, as well as STACKIT, which Schwarz Group, Lidl’s parent company, created for its own needs but is now commercializing.

The prospect of winning big contracts with European institutions could encourage other players to follow in the footsteps of Germany’s retail heavyweights, or at least that is the hope. According to its promoters, “an additional objective of the tender was to encourage the market to offer sovereign digital solutions compatible with EU laws and values.”

However, the committee’s choice to avoid over-reliance on a single service provider can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, diversification can provide greater flexibility and allay concerns about dependency. On the other hand, this would not be the best shortcut to promoting the next trillion-dollar European company.

To pessimists and pragmatists, sovereign technology may seem commercially motivated – a way to ensure the euro stays in. But Europe’s conscious detachment from American technology has not always translated into contracts for its startups. For example, France is abandoning Windows in favor of the open source Linux operating system. Organizations in Austria, Denmark, Italy and Germany are similarly looking to replace Microsoft’s product suite with open source alternatives, such as LibreOffice.

This shift sometimes comes alongside a “build, don’t buy” philosophy that has drawn criticism. The French Court of Accounts has questioned spending on internal tools such as Visio, a purported alternative to Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Financial newspaper Les Échos also reported on the backlash expressed across the tech ecosystem, including this rhetorical question: “If the government doesn’t lead by example, how can you expect large private companies to follow suit?”

Private buyers may decide the outcome

In fact, large private companies have not followed much. German airline Lufthansa has chosen Elon Musk-backed Starlink for its Wi-Fi service. So did Air France, now also a private airline but still partly controlled by the French and Dutch states – and there is a possibility that France’s state-owned railway company SNCF will do the same.

Whether major companies choose alternatives over American providers depends largely on the existence of technologically compelling European options. In his dispute with Poland, Musk said there was “no alternative to Starlink” – but European governments intend to prove him wrong. Public sentiment may also play a role, and may not stop when many European individuals and officials leave X.

Not being American became an advantage

After President Trump threatened to seize control of Greenland, apps to boycott US products have risen to the top of the Danish App Store – a sign that demand to cut back on US technology is expanding. Pressure is also mounting on European governments to reconsider their contracts, and Palantir’s latest mini-statement is unlikely to help its case in the EU and UK.

That tech billionaires openly defend views that many Europeans do not share is also a sign that the divorce is two-sided. When Meta chose to delay the EU launch of Threads due to concerns over European law, it was also a reminder that the region is only a secondary market for tech giants, and that they are able to ignore it.

Conversely, this creates a market opportunity for solutions designed for Europe, its many languages, and cultural nuances. This alone would naturally boost demand in its domestic markets, with an additional boost if Eurostack supporters could oblige Europe’s public sector to buy local products.

Europe may want to buy European products, but there is also hope that “sovereign technology” will be sold abroad. Mistral AI has reportedly seen its revenues rise as an alternative to OpenAI. Meanwhile, the Canadian and German governments are supporting Cowher’s merger with Alpha Alpha to create a “transatlantic AI powerhouse” that serves companies and governments around the world. And in 2026, not being American—nor Chinese or Russian—is increasingly becoming a selling point.