The European Commission on June 3 unveiled a sweeping technological sovereignty package designed to reduce the bloc's dependence on foreign suppliers for semiconductors, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and open-source software. The plan bundles two new legislative proposals — a Chips Act 2.0 and a Cloud and AI Development Act — alongside an Open Source Strategy and a roadmap for AI in the energy sector.
The drive is explicitly aimed at loosening Europe's heavy reliance on US technology giants. "We want to be sure nobody has a kill switch," one official said, as the Cloud and AI Development Act introduces a single EU-wide framework to assess the sovereignty of cloud and AI providers and to streamline the build-out of datacentres across the continent.
The ambitions carry an enormous price tag: the Commission estimates roughly EUR 120 billion is needed for semiconductors, EUR 200 billion for data centres by 2036, EUR 100 billion for cloud and AI, and EUR 2 billion for open-source software over seven years. "These measures will enable Europe to become an AI continent," the Commission said, framing the package as a bid to make the EU a global leader in AI research, development and adoption.