Europe's chip ambitions won't break dependence on US cloud and software, says Forrester
Brussels may spend billions on semiconductor fabs, but tech sovereignty remains firmly in American and Chinese hands
By The Register
Europe’s push to build its own semiconductor factories will not end the region’s reliance on American cloud computing and software, according to a new analysis from Forrester. The research firm says that while Brussels plans to spend billions on new chip fabrication plants, true tech sovereignty remains controlled by the United States and China.
Forrester argues that Europe cannot replace American hardware for AI and chip manufacturing this decade regardless of investment levels, even though it already holds a monopoly on some foundational layers of the technology stack. The report highlights that Europe depends on foreign countries for more than 80% of its digital technology, with even the European Commission’s own websites running on Amazon cloud services.
National initiatives in France and Germany to create domestic AI platforms and replace US videoconferencing tools represent modest steps but have not yet broken the structural dependency on US cloud infrastructure. Forrester concludes that Europe can only reduce its reliance on American software and models as quickly as it decides to want to, but fabrication and AI hardware dependence will persist throughout the current decade.