Berlin (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Germany’s digital minister, Karsten Wildberger, stated that Europe should develop its own digital infrastructure to lessen reliance on U.S. providers, but this doesn’t imply a total withdrawal from them, Reuters reported.
European digital infrastructure remains heavily dependent on U.S. technology providers in 2025. Some Europeans, disturbed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade wars aimed at advancing U.S. interests, are now exploring alternatives to the digital services sector dominated by American tech companies.
Why does Germany want Europe to develop digital sovereignty?
To attain digital sovereignty, Germany and the European Union must actively engage in this sector as participating players, rather than remaining passive customers as they currently do, he stated in an interview this week.
“There is a huge growth market for technology, innovation, software, data, and artificial intelligence,” he stated
He mentioned that Germany and Europe have developed global leaders in their sectors, including Mistral AI, DeepL, and Aleph Alpha.
Why does Germany oppose full separation from US partners?
Wildberger noted that U.S. companies remain leaders in sectors like artificial intelligence and will be essential partners as Germany develops its own business models.
“Digital sovereignty doesn’t mean protectionism. We want to and must be accessible for the global market,” Wildberger expressed
“U.S. companies of course also continue to be interested in doing business abroad,” He expressed his opinion when questioned about fears that Trump might abruptly terminate transatlantic cooperation.
However, he mentioned that German companies should be able to select among options, such as deciding where data is stored and who manages the infrastructure. Digital sovereignty also entailed rethinking an entire long and complex supply chain, which stretches from rare earths and chip design to servers and cables, Wildberger added.
How reliant is Europe on American tech providers today?
The European cloud computing market is dominated by major American technology companies. Amazon Web Services holds 32% of the total market, Microsoft Azure 23% and Google Cloud 10%. Collectively, the three American companies hold approximately 65%-70% of the total European cloud market.
The largest cloud providers in Europe hold much smaller shares of the overall market. SAP and Deutsche Telekom are the largest European cloud providers with an overall cloud market share of about 2%. Other European cloud providers, such as OVHcloud, Telecom Italia, and Orange, hold smaller shares of the market.
