For decades, European governments and businesses have relied heavily on a small group of American technology companies to power their digital infrastructure. Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom have become embedded in everything from government meetings to everyday corporate communication.

However, across Europe, governments, public institutions and private organisations are increasingly looking to reduce their reliance on US technology providers. Concerns over data privacy, growing unease about technological dependence and a more confrontational tone from the administration of Donald Trump towards Europe have all contributed to this shift.

These factors have heightened worries that major Silicon Valley companies could, under political pressure, restrict access to critical digital services. As a result, many European countries are exploring domestic and open-source alternatives to guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications.

Most recently, France announced that 2.5 million civil servants would stop using video conferencing tools from U.S. providers by 2027 - including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoTo Meeting – instead switching to Visio, a homegrown service.

Austria’s military also completed a significant overhaul of its IT infrastructure, replacing Microsoft Office with the open-source LibreOffice across all desktop systems and the German state of Schleswig-Holstein announced it will replace Microsoft software in government offices with Linux and LibreOffice.

The move to domestic and open-source alternatives comes as part of a wider push for stronger digital sovereignty – Europe’s effort to gain greater control over its data, infrastructure, technology and security, as geopolitical tensions between Europe and the United States continue to grow, fuelled in part by renewed US interest in acquiring or exerting greater strategic control over Greenland and the ongoing conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran.

While the move reflects broader political concerns about security and data protection, it also raises a pressing question for European organisation, if reliance on US tech giants is set to decrease, what alternatives will fill the void, and what does this mean for the future of Europe’s technology ecosystem?

Most recently, hackers in Iran claimed their first prominent cyber-attack on American medical technology firm Stryker during ongoing conflict. Incidents like this highlight how corporate infrastructure can become entangled in geopolitical disputes and state-linked cyber activity. As tensions escalate, the US government may impose sanctions, export controls or other restrictions that require technology companies to limit where and how their services are provided. In such scenarios, organisations relying heavily on platforms headquartered abroad could face disruption if access to those services becomes restricted.

This shift also creates an opportunity for European businesses to rethink how their technology environments are structured. Rather than relying heavily on a single provider, organisations should explore ways to diversify their technology stack which can help to reduce risk to their operations if that one technology was to go offline.

A clear example of the risks associated with relying heavily on a single technology provider is the global outage caused by CrowdStrike in 2024, widely regarded as one of the largest IT disruptions in history. The incident was triggered by a faulty software update that affected systems running Microsoft Windows, disabling up to 8.5 million computers worldwide.

The outage caused widespread disruption to everyday life, impacting businesses, governments and public services across multiple sectors. Airports, banks, hospitals and government services, including emergency response systems and public-facing websites, were all affected as critical systems temporarily went offline, highlighting how a single point of failure can cascade into global turmoil.

The call for greater digital sovereignty will also accelerate innovation and investment within the European technology sector. As governments and businesses seek alternatives to established platforms, like Microsoft, regional vendors could see increased demand for collaboration tools, secure communications services and cloud-based solutions encouraging partnerships between governments, startups and established technology providers across Europe.

This increased demand may help smaller European vendors scale more quickly, strengthening the region’s digital ecosystem and creating a more competitive market capable of offering credible alternatives to established global technology providers.

As trust in US tech giant's wavers amid shifting geopolitical relations between the United States and Europe, European counties are reassessing their reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure. This conversation is centred around how organisations and businesses can safeguard critical services and ensure that sensitive data remains secure.

Importantly, this transition is not about completely severing ties with US technology companies. Platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom remain deeply integrated into global business operations and will likely continue to play an important role in many organisations’ technology stacks. Instead, the focus is on reducing overreliance and creating a more diversified and resilient digital environment.

Tom Kidwell is co-founder & Director of Ecliptic Dynamics. He has two decades of experience within the cyber and IT industry, specialising in protecting private, public and third sector organisations both regionally and internationally from cyber threats.