European Commission packages cloud, AI and chips into new tech-sovereignty push

The European Union depends on non-EU providers for more than 80% of key digital products, services, infrastructure and intellectual property, according to European Commission figures cited in the supplied reporting. The Commission’s new European Technological Sovereignty Package is built around that dependency, bringing cloud, AI, semiconductors, open source and digital energy systems into one industrial-policy frame.

The package, announced on June 2, combines two legislative proposals — a Chips Act 2.0 and a Cloud and AI Development Act — with an EU Open Source Strategy and a Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy, according to ERP Today and The Record. The Commission says the goal is to expand domestic capacity while widening choice for EU businesses, citizens and public administrations.

The semiconductor gap is one of the clearest pressure points. ERP Today and ResultSense reported that Europe produces about 10% of global semiconductors. The Chips Act 2.0 is intended to strengthen the bloc’s semiconductor ecosystem, support advanced manufacturing and expand procurement options for technology buyers, particularly as AI-driven demand increases.

Cloud is the other main dependency. ERP Today and ResultSense reported that more than 70% of the EU cloud market is held by three U.S. hyperscalers. The proposed Cloud and AI Development Act would create a framework for assessing cloud and AI sovereignty, including risk assessments for member states and EU entities. ResultSense said the plan introduces a four-level framework weighing supply-chain control, where AI inference data is processed, and the location of infrastructure and staff.

The proposal also turns data-centre capacity into an infrastructure target. ResultSense reported that the package would seek to triple EU data-centre capacity within five to seven years. It also cited estimated sums of roughly €200 billion for data-centre expansion by 2036 and €100 billion for cloud and AI, though the supplied evidence does not provide the Commission documents behind those totals.

Commission officials have framed the package as security and resilience policy, not only industrial development. The Record quoted EU tech lead Henna Virkkunen describing it as “a major shift” in Europe’s approach to technological sovereignty and saying Europe must control its data, supply chains and future while keeping its economy open. The same report linked the push to concern that long-standing dependencies on U.S. and Chinese suppliers could become security vulnerabilities.

The package reaches beyond software and chips into energy systems because AI and cloud expansion depend on power, land, cooling, permits and network capacity. FundsforNGOs reported that energy resilience is one pillar of the initiative, with investments in sustainable power generation and integration to support Europe’s growing digital infrastructure needs. That places the plan inside the physical limits of the digital economy, where compute promises depend on electricity and buildout speed.

Open source is also included as a sovereignty tool. ResultSense reported that the strategy recasts open source as a lever to reduce vendor lock-in. ERP Today described the broader package as bringing open source under the same policy roof as cloud, AI and chips, tying software autonomy to infrastructure and procurement rather than treating it as a separate developer issue.

Some major details remain unresolved in the supplied evidence. The excerpts do not verify final legislative text, funding sources, member-state positions, implementation deadlines for every measure, or how procurement rules would apply across public agencies and regulated sectors. They also do not show how non-EU suppliers would respond or whether European providers can scale quickly enough to meet demand.

The verified direction is clear: the Commission is trying to move Europe’s digital backbone from market dependency toward managed capacity. If adopted and funded, the package would affect who supplies chips, where cloud and AI workloads are hosted, how public bodies assess digital risk, and how much energy and infrastructure Europe must build to support its own technology stack.