- Europe's digital dependency on US cloud providers is a sovereignty risk, as US law allows access to data and potential sanctions could disrupt critical services.
- European governments are ill-equipped to lead cloud independence, but financial regulators might force banks to diversify, creating a path for others.
- The cloud consists of varied services; Europe excels at low-level infrastructure (servers, storage) but lacks competitive high-level SaaS alternatives to US hyperscalers.
- GAIA-X and other initiatives have not solved the problem; more specific industrial policy and incentives are needed to build a European cloud ecosystem.
- Open source alone is insufficient; it requires robust IT operations and better productization to compete with US big tech.
- US cloud dominance threatens European privacy and security, especially under the Trump administration, which may exploit dependency for leverage.
- A coherent strategy includes building 'European Cloud Modules' and backup communication systems for critical services like government and healthcare.